


Sharing Is Caring (Except When You're Sick)

by justmyownwriting



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Caretaking, Family Bonding, Repairing Relationships, Sick Klaus, sick luther
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-10
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2020-04-23 18:49:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 31,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19156855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justmyownwriting/pseuds/justmyownwriting
Summary: luther gets sick and accidentally spreads it to klaus and this is them being taken care of and stuff





	1. Chapter 1

Luther woke with a start to the familiar feeling of soreness in his throat, only now it was accompanied by a tightness in his chest. His reading glasses had slipped off his face onto the pages of research laid out before him on his desk.   
Suppressing a wheezy cough against his wrist, he lifted his other arm up and checked his watch: 10:27 am. Last he remembered, it was 8 pm. He must have fallen asleep at his work. Despite the sheen of sweat forming on his hairline, and the three layers he was wearing, he was shivering. With a groan he crossed over to his bed, picked up one of the many blankets out of the messy pile on his bed, and threw it over his shoulders.  
He’d been holed up in his room for two days now, only sneaking downstairs to grab tissues. He’d skipped Allison’s “family dinner” both nights, instead opting for some crackers and water. He was too tired for anything else anyway, and this way he could avoid his family. Even though he was sure it was just a little cold (he hadn’t been sick in so long, this was normal, right?), he didn’t want to take the risk of getting them sick.   
There was also the fear of attracting unwanted attention to his body. He’d gotten better at not isolating himself, but in times like this, when he felt even more grotesque than normal, he reverted back to old habits.  
He shuffled downstairs, clutching the blanket around his arms. It was too small to cover his gargantuan shoulders, and he had to stop repeatedly to readjust it. When he got into the kitchen, his throat itched in that telltale way, the catalyst for a series of deep, chesty coughs, which he smooshed as much as possible into his elbow. Three layers of fabric were a good enough silencer.   
Unfortunately, the violent movement sent the blanket slipping off his shoulders onto the ground. He looked down at it with a small sniffle, dreading the aches and dizziness that would inevitably come if he picked it up. He stood there for a good minute, staring at the blanket and trying to figure out if it was worth it to bend over and pick it up. He didn’t have to think for long though, because a bony hand swiped it up off the ground and threw it over its own shoulder.   
“Klaus-I. What the hell? Give it back!” Luther spoke defensively. Part of him just wanted his blanket back but a bigger part of him didn’t want Klaus to be infected by the germs inhabiting said blanket.   
Klaus ignored Luther and draped it over his own shoulders. Luther wanted to say something but he didn’t want to admit that he was sick. If he did so, his siblings wouldn’t leave him alone—either by helping him or teasing him. Luther stuck with a small sigh and went to turn around to start making some tea when Klaus tapped him on the shoulder.   
He said, “I’m just poking fun at you, big guy. Here you go.” He handed the blanket back to his big—size-wise—brother. Luther didn’t know what to say and Klaus caught onto that quickly. “You alright Number One? You’re looking a bit peaky.”  
“I’m fine. What do you want, Klaus?”   
“Hey, hey, hey, relax! I’m only trying to help. Do you need anything?” Klaus asked. “I’m so damn bored all of the time now that I don’t have anything fancy running through my system. I came here looking for an adventure and it seems like you’re on a fun one. May I join?”  
Luther felt badly. He really wanted to spend more time with his brother. He was trying to push himself out of this character Reginald forced him into. He tried to stop himself from thinking about his siblings as teammates and actually as his brothers and sisters. But right now he was caught between a rock and a hard place.   
If he hung around Klaus for even a few minutes longer it was likely that Klaus was going to catch whatever Luther was harboring.   
So, Luther shook his head. “Sorry, Klaus. I’ve got to go back upstairs and work on something. A lot of reading. You wouldn’t be interested.” Luther tried his absolute hardest not to sound cold or annoyed with his brother.   
Still, Klaus’ reaction was full of nothing but disappointment. He nodded quickly and quietly and skirted out of the room before Luther could say another word.   
Now that Klaus was gone, Luther could focus on how he felt. Without Klaus distracting him, the pounding in his head seemed to come back with a vengeance. Luther wasn’t sure if he just had a headache or if it was from the buildup of all of the congestion. Whatever it was, Luther was in pain.   
He let out a small cough into his elbow, knowing that anything more would have him dragging on for what could be minutes, and he didn’t have the time nor the energy for that. The tickle in his throat was momentarily alleviated, but not the tightness in his chest that still lingered, begging for a deeper release. But he couldn’t let that out, not right now, with Klaus in clear earshot the next room. He’d have to wait until he was in the privacy of his room.  
With his arm still held up to his face, he shuffled over to the sink and poured himself the glass of water he’d come downstairs for in the first place. The first sip unfortunately hit his throat in just the wrong way, and he had to bring his elbow to his mouth again to suppress the coughs that inevitably resulted, this time a bit more chesty than the last. Fortunately, the second sip seemed to soothe rather than aggravate the tickle, and he downed the rest of glass in just two more sips, quickly pouring another glass, which he downed in two huge gulps.  
Unfortunately, the rush of cold water made him shiver even more profusely than he already had been, to which he responded by immediately washing the glass in warm water -- he needed to wash it ASAP anyway, if he was serious about not leaving any germs lingering around.  
The steam from the sink ended up wafting up to his nose and loosening some of the congestion that had built up there. A good thing for his health, probably, but it meant that the persistent tickle he’d had some momentary relief from was back. Which meant he’d inevitably start sneezing again soon. And, with this cold, there was a very good chance they’d keep coming for few minutes. Klaus definitely wouldn’t leave him alone if he heard that. So Luther turned the faucet off a soon as he felt the steam tugging at his sinuses, and brought a gloved hand up to scrub ferociously at his flaring nostrils. He gave one pointed, congested sniff.   
That seemed to do the trick. For now.  
Klaus had left the kitchen with his arms crossed over his chest, but once he’d made his way into the living room, he put them down by his side, exposing the tiny mesh tank top he had on as he stood rimrod straight and put on a stern face.  
“‘It’s grown-up stuff, Klaus, a lot of reading,” he put on his best Luther voice. He quickly lost the act, however, and flopped down on the couch, staring up at the ceiling and speaking in his normal voice. “Cause God knows I never learned how to read, right?” He rolled his eyes. “How do you know what I’m interested in? Maybe I secretly want to learn all about moon rocks!”  
“Do you?”  
Klaus shifted his gaze to see Ben sitting by his feet, grinning at him. He stuck his tongue at his ghost brother.  
“That’s not the point, Ben. It’s the principle of it!” he explained, pushing himself up with his elbows into a sitting position. “He just pushed me to the side, like I was in the way. Typical Luther.”  
“You’re overreacting,” Ben said, shaking his head.  
“I’m just having fun, Benny boy,” he said, reaching over and booping his brother on the nose, though he knew his finger would just phase through him. “I’m not upset, we all know how Luther is.”  
“I don’t think that’s what it is,” Ben said. “Did you get a good look at him? I think he might be sick.” Klaus just shrugged.  
“He was a little pale. He’s probably fine, he’s always had a good immune system.”  
“I don’t know, Klaus.” And with that, Ben poofed away. Klaus groaned and got up from the couch. He had a sense of where Ben might have gone.  
Back up in Luther’s room, the largest Hargreeves sibling was blowing his nose into a handkerchief he had found in his dad’s belongings a couple of weeks prior. He still felt a deep connection to his father, feeling like no matter what else he did, he had still done whatever he could to save him while his life was on the line.   
“Heh-NGXht! Hahh-nGHXtchiew!” Luther’s body rocked forward as he let out the properly contained explosions. He always tried his hardest to keep them quiet nowadays, for fear that his siblings might find them funny whereas he found them deeply embarrassing and draining.   
With this cold, one sneeze was never enough. He was pretty sure he’d sneezed more times in a row that morning than he ever had in his entire life. Miraculously, he’d managed to keep the sound contained until now. But the pressure in his head was building, and he didn’t know how much longer he could keep this up.  
He had just started blowing his nose again when a knock at his door had him hastily putting the handkerchief down sniffling back the congestion back instead before speaking.  
“Who is it?” he called, getting up from his desk chair and shuffling over to the door.  
“Your worst nightmare.” It was Klaus.  
“Sounds about right.” Luther rolled his eyes. “What do you want?”  
“Open the door,” Klaus whined. “Ben wants to see you.”  
Luther bit down on his lip as he considered that. He really didn’t want to infect Klaus, and he wasn’t even sure if he was just fucking with him. But he very well might be telling the truth, and he knew if Ben wanted to see him, it had to be important.  
So he opened the door just a crack, catching a glimpse of his dead brother’s concerned face outlined in a blue glow, before his own wildly hitching breath caught him off guard. He eyed the handkerchief on his desk for a moment, before shutting the door quickly, just before he brought his hand up to pinch his nose shut.  
“Hih’nXGT! Hihh... heh-GNXT!” Once again, his large torso shook with the force of suppressing the explosions, which were growing more and more difficult to contain, just like the pressure in his head grew more intense with each stifled sneeze.  
“You’re gonna blow your brains out!” Ben tsk’ed from the hallway, apparently still manifested. Klaus just giggled.  
“Bless you, big brother! What, you got the sniffles?”  
Luther groaned, “Go away, Klaus.”  
Klaus wouldn’t let up. “Come on, Ben and I both know you’re sick! There’s no point in hiding it from the two of us!”  
“You can’t keep lying to us forever!” Ben joined in.   
Luther tried his hardest to ignore them. He knew they really did mean well, but Klaus had a weird way of going about it and sometimes Ben would tag along. Luther blew his nose as quietly as he could into the handkerchief. Great. It was soaked. Luther grabbed around for more tissues but he realized that he had forgotten to grab more on his journey downstairs earlier.   
He cursed under his breath. With this wretched cold he couldn’t afford to go without tissues.   
Luther stood up and walked to the door. As he opened it, Klaus and Ben fell into his room. They had had their ears pressed up against the door.   
“What the hell, you guys? Can’t you leave me alone?” Luther yelled. He really wasn’t feeling well.   
Klaus’ look softened. He asked, “Do you need anything, buddy? I-I could go fetch you some tea or some tissues or something like that. Come on, we both know you’d like that. If not, I ca-“  
“Jesus Christ, Klaus, if I let you get me tissues will you leave me alone?”  
Klaus nodded happily. He bounced off, taking Ben with him.   
Luther shut his door. He knew Klaus was going to get sick. “Goddamnit,” he muttered. Klaus always picked the worst of times to become interested in his seemingly eldest sibling.   
“Knock knock! Your nurse is here!” Klaus’ voice came from the other side of the door. “Ben’s here too I’m just a little winded from those stairs and manifesting Ben isn’t really within my power limits right now. Anywho, I have some tea for you and I also found some nifty cough drops! I grabbed all the boxes of tissues I could find, too. Oh, and, open up!”  
“I-wha-“ Before Luther could finish talking, Klaus stuck a thermometer in his mouth. Luther went to scold him but Klaus cut him off again.  
“Nuh-uh, big guy! Keep your mouth closed until the thermometer beeps or it won’t get a good enough reading and you’ll have to do it again!” Klaus tutted.   
Annoyed, Luther waited. When the thermometer beeped he went to take it out and read it but Klaus’ scrawny little hand grabbed it before Luther could even move his hand.   
Klaus frowned. “You’ve got a fever. 101.3 to be exact. Strictly bed rest for you, Number One! I’ll be back in a little to bring you some soup or something!”  
Luther couldn’t help but smile as Klaus sauntered out of his room. Sometimes he felt estranged from all of the other siblings, but Klaus had this way of magically making him feel like they were all a real family.   
As soon as Klaus stepped out of Luther’s room, he wiped his nose on his sleeve. It was running for some reason.  
“You feeling alright?” Ben asked.   
Klaus nodded, “Yeah, it’s just from the steam from the tea. You know how sensitive my nose is after all that damn cocaine.”  
Ben nodded, but he decided to keep a closer eye on Klaus, as well as Luther. Ben hadn’t been completely blinded as to why Klaus hadn’t manifested him when he was in Luther’s room. He knew that Klaus was feeling tired and he hoped, no prayed, that Klaus wasn’t catching what Luther had. When Klaus had been asleep the night before Ben had been wandering around the house and he heard some noise coming from Luther’s room. He heard him up coughing and sneezing, trying to keep himself quiet so he didn’t disturb his siblings. Ben wished they realized how much Luther cared about them.   
He had brought up Luther looking sick to Klaus hoping he would catch on, and he was glad that he finally did. At least Luther was getting some rest now, even though Klaus had to hassle him before he could get some.   
Now Ben was worried. He hadn’t realized that while Klaus was the least likely to really make Luther feel badly about his illness, he was also the most likely to catch it. Klaus’ immune system was shot to hell due to the cocktail of drugs he had consumed every day for seventeen years. Yes, Klaus was sober now, but he was a lot more susceptible to illness, and now that he wasn’t high all the time he was present enough to realize how shitty he felt.   
“You’ll tell me if you don’t feel well, right?”   
Klaus rolled his eyes. “Hop off my dick, Ben! I feel fine. Go haunt Diego or something.”  
Ben liked to stay around Klaus to keep an eye on him as much as he could, but as Klaus was now sober he felt less of a need to babysit him. So Ben disappeared.   
Klaus wandered into the living room and rubbed his nose. He flopped onto the couch and tried to ignore the bloody bitch to his left. She was wailing at the top of her lungs. Klaus felt bad, he always did, but there was a slight ache in his head that made him a little more aggressive than usual. He was going to yell at the ghost and tell her to can it, but yelling at ghosts usually did more harm than good, so Klaus stayed silent.   
Back in Luther’s room, Ben was creeping around. He wished he could will himself to become corporeal to help clean up and tug the blankets up to Luther’s shoulders. He was shuddering in his sleep. Ben frowned and sat down on the edge of Luther’s bed. He started humming one of Luther’s favorite songs from when they were kids. He knew Luther couldn’t hear him, but he could’ve sworn he saw a smile on Luther’s face.


	2. Chapter 2

“Ghost boy, get your ass up!” Diego shouted.

Klaus murmured, “Huh?”

“You can’t lounge on the couch all day, we’ve got work to do.” Diego was in his vigilante getup and Klaus cracked a smile. “We’re helping Allison with dinner.”

Confusedly, Klaus looked at the clock. “It’s noon.”

Diego said, “We have to go grocery shopping. Come on, we told Allison we’d do it yesterday.”

“Fine, if I must. Oh-hang on-ehh’nxGHTchiew! Hihh-nghXHT-etshiiew! Well, excuse me!” The sneezes hindered Klaus’ progress in getting up off of the couch and he ended up back where he started.

“Bless you times three, come on.”

Luther awoke out of his nap a little while later. He remembered getting back to his bed at eleven, and when he looked at the clock it read 2:30. Luther was never one to sleep through the day, especially since he had slept through the entire night.

He shifted out of bed, his limbs aching. He had barely even sat up when there was a knock on the door. Luther really was trying to keep his patience with Klaus, but being sick was pushing it. “Go away, Klaus!”

“It’s just me,” Vanya’s sweet voice spoke as she pushed through the door and stepped into Luther’s room. “I brought you some tea. Klaus told me you were sick. Honestly, if I hadn’t figured out you weren’t feeling well I would’ve just thought he said it to throw us off the track of him getting sick. Remember when he used to do that? Pin his sickness on someone else? He used to tell Dad that his used tissues were Ben’s all the time.”

Luther palmed his face.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay! I’m sure he’s okay. Uh-“

Luther moaned, “I can’t believe I got him sick, I tried so damn hard to keep him from catching this and he caught it anyway. He’s going to get it so much worse, I should’ve just stayed in here until I felt 100% better. I can’t believe this.”

“Luther, come here, let me feel your forehead,” Vanya said softly. Luther was burning. His forehead was glistening with sweat, and so was Vanya’s hand after she pulled it away. She found the thermometer that Klaus had left on Luther’s bedside table. “Open, please.”

Vanya let the thermometer rest in Luther’s mouth for a bit until it beeped.

“Oh, Luther,” Vanya frowned. “Your temperature just passed 103. Shit. Okay, I’m gonna go downstairs and see if we have any medicine.”

Luther groaned lightly in response. Vanya rushed out of his room so quickly she forgot to set the thermometer back down.

As Vanya vaulted down the stairs, she ran into Diego.

“Why are you in such a hurry, seven?” Diego asked.

“Luther has a really high fever and he’s worried he got Klaus sick and he’s kind of delirious and I need to get him medicine because he seems so sick and I don’t know how long he’s been feeling this badly but we didn’t even do anything to help him and-“

“Vanya, slow down. Come on, I’ll help you look for the medicine,” Diego offered. “Klaus isn’t sick, I’m pretty sure he’s fine. I mean, he just sneezed a couple times but that’s not too out of the ordinary for him. Here, give me the thermometer.”

Diego took it out of her hand and they walked down the rest of the stairs together. Klaus was still lounging on the living room couch. He looked alright, Vanya supposed.

“Klaus, you feeling alright?” Vanya called.

Klaus nodded, “Peachy keen!”

Still with a shaky voice, Vanya asked, “Diego can you please just go take his temperature to make sure? Not just for me but for Luther.”

Diego nodded and Vanya set off to find some medicine.

“Open up, Klaus,” Diego ordered. “The game is simple: if you have a fever, you’re on strict bed rest, if you don’t have a fever, you’ve gotta take care of yourself, okay? If you’re already sick that’s something we can’t prevent but you need to at least try and keep yourself healthy for once.”

Klaus rolled his eyes and opened his mouth. When the thermometer beeped, Klaus grinned triumphantly.

“98.6, perfect temperature,” Klaus said. “Now if you’ll excuse me I-“

“You’re not going anywhere. I need to disinfect the whole damn house.”

Klaus cooed, “Awh, Diego. You’re such a sweet brother. You know, the others and I ought to thank you for this. You caring for all of us like this.”

“It’s not for them it’s for you!” Diego snapped. “You’re about as frail as a flamingo and you catch everything you run into. I don’t want to see you down with pneumonia or bronchitis again, okay? Take care of yourself. For me at least.”

Klaus’ hectic facade fell as he nodded sincerely. He knew that Diego still liked when he joked around with him but he needed Klaus to be serious sometimes.

Number Four laid back down on the couch and made himself comfortable.

“I’m gonna clean up a bit and then I’ll bring you some vitamins and maybe some cold medicine, just in case,” Diego said more to himself than to Klaus.

As Diego walked out he crossed paths with Vanya.

“Hey, Klaus’ temperature is normal but I’m still keeping him down here on the couch just in case. I’m gonna try and wipe everything down as best as I can and then I’ll see if there’s anything else I can do to boost Klaus’ immune system. Tell Luther that Klaus is okay,” Diego reported.

Vanya let out a deep breath. Diego wondered if she had been holding it in since their conversation about eight minutes prior. “Thank god. Okay, we have some medicine but we’ll definitely have to take a trip to the pharmacy. Maybe you can take Klaus with you?” Vanya suggested. “You know, get him some things that he likes just to try and keep him out of here.”

“I’ll do that after I clean up, just so he can rest for a bit,” Diego said.

Without another word, the two siblings parted.

When Vanya entered Luther’s room, he had his covers wrapped around him as tight as he could.

“Luther, you need to take some of the blankets off, you’re burning up,” Vanya said.

Luther shook his head. “I’m so cold, Vanya. I’m okay like this. Take my temperature again it must have dropped because I’m freezing!”

Vanya looked around for it. Once she realized where it was she let out a monstrous gasp. “Oh my god, no no no no! Oh my god I’m so stupid!”

“What? What-Vanya, what’s wrong?” Luther stumbles over his words.

“I-I brought the thermometer downstairs and I didn’t wash it but Diego used it to take Klaus’ temperature but I doubt he washed it before he did that and it had your germs all over it!” Vanya cried.

Luther sighed. “There’s no way he’s-hehh-heNXGsh! Hih-INGXHTchieh!”

“Bless you, Luther.”

“There’s no way he’s not getting sick now,” Luther grumbled. “Crap.”

Vanya said, “Try not to worry about it as much, okay? You’re still really sick and you have to trust that we’re going to take care of you and him!”

“Luther? Are you okay? You’re sweating, take these covers off.” Allison burst into the room. She had been busy trying to keep their family together for the past few days that she hadn’t noticed how Luther was feeling.

Vanya announced, “He’s sick. He has a fever. I took his temperature a few minutes ago.”

Allison sat on the bed next to Luther, and Vanya suddenly felt the strong urge to leave.

Luther loved Allison more than anything, but she smothered the hell out of him for the next hour and a half and there came a point where he just couldn’t take it anymore. He kept trying to suggest that he should rest, but Allison wasn’t taking the hint.

His breaking point came when he had finally fixed the blankets in the way that was the most comfortable for him and Allison took them and completely rearranged them. She then started fussing with his hair. Luther couldn’t take it anymore.

“Okay, I need to be alone. I need to rest and I don’t need to be fussed over every two seconds!” Luther semi-shouted. His hand clutches at his sore throat. “Just give me some space, please!” he begged, voice breaking in that telltale way. Sure enough, he started coughing as soon as the words left his lips, turning himself over to muffle the sound into his pillows.

Vanya had only been able to find Sudafed and Tylenol downstairs, and while they helped Luther a bit with the congestion and the fever, his cough was getting worse by the minute, migrating deeper and deeper in his chest.

Allison’s face fell as she watched Luther’s broad back tense. For once she was silent, simply putting a gentle hand on his back and wincing at the desperate, strangled gasps emitting from him in between the rattling convulsions. This went on for a few minutes until, finally, his breathing – though still wheezy – evened out.

“Oh, Luther. I’m sorry. But you should have said something sooner!” He responded with a deep, shaky inhale. Allison let go of his shoulder just before his body jolted forward into the pillow he still had his face pressed into.

“‘HAH-gnxt! Hah-NKTchuh-hih! Hihhh… HAH-uhhh!” He tensed in anticipation for another, but never found it. The tension in his body dissipated, and he lifted his head from the pillow and released it in a deep sigh. Not seconds later it was followed by another deep, desperate inhale, too sudden for him to–

“Hh’KSCH!-hhKSCHew!-hhKSCHIEW!” Allison flinched at the sheer volume of the uncontained explosions. Even partially muffled by the pillow, they were louder than anything she’d expect out of him.

“Oh my god, Luther, bless you!” She couldn’t remember the last time she’d heard him sneeze without holding back. Maybe he had when they were younger, but she certainly didn’t remember anything that loud ever coming from him.

She plucked some tissues from Luther’s nightstand, knowing he’d need them soon, and pushed pushing the box closer so it was within his reach for the next time. She’d thrown his handkerchief in the hamper when she’d found it soaked in mucus, but not before analyzing the color of said mucus (“Hey, Van, does this look infected to you?” “I think I’ll let you handle that one…”).

“Ew.” Luther had his head lifted and was staring down at his pillow, which was connected to his nose by a string of yellowish snot – well, at least the decongestants were working. Unphased, Allison mommed into action, putting a bundle of tissues next to his face. She touched his shoulder one last time before heading to the door.

“Happens to the best of us. Get some rest, Luther.” But that didn’t stop Luther from blushing an even deeper red than his fever accounted for as he re-positioned his blankets around himself.


	3. chapter 3

Meanwhile, at the CVS check-out counter, Klaus held the sleeve of the hoodie Diego had forced him to wear up to his face.  
“Hih… xngt-ishuu! Ht’TDZshieww!” He scrunched up his nose afterwards and the itchiness that had barely been affected by the sneezes, and rubbed his hoodie-sleeve covered knuckles underneath his nostrils to prevent another outburst. Diego tried not to watch. He would definitely be washing that before he wore it again. In fact, maybe he’d just give it to Klaus.  
“Bless you, dear!” The middle-aged cashier flashed him a warm smile as she put the cough suppressants and expectorants (“Might as well get both, knowing you!”) into a brown paper bag.   
“Thanks! I’ll take that!” Klaus said with a grin as he took the bag from her, punctuating the sentence with a watery sniffle. Diego rolled his eyes, not looking up from the card reader as he punched in his pin. The total was a bit higher than he’d hoped for, but he tried not to let his frustration show. At this insistence of Vanya’s frantically scribbled list, they’d stocked up on tissues, cough drops, Gatorade, the whole nine yards, even buying extra of the stuff they already had at home. Plus Emergen-C for Klaus. And ice cream, he’d insisted on ice cream (“It’s for Luther! It’ll help with his throat.”). Yeah, right. But Diego had agreed, not wanting to waste time arguing with a pouty Klaus. He just wanted to get home and give everyone their pills ASAP.   
“Always best to plan ahead, I guess, hmm?” The cashier smiled at Diego, holding up the last remaining item -- Echinacea -- and putting it in the bag turned to Diego. “You make sure your boyfriend takes this right away before that cold gets worse!” Diego blushed deep red. Klaus chuckled out loud, stopping himself when he felt a bit of a tickle forming in his throat at the tail end of it. He cleared his throat subtly, which subdued it, but it still lingered a bit.  
“Will do. But he’s not my boyfriend. He’s my brother.”  
“Oh my god.” The cashier brought her hand to her mouth. “I’m so sorry!”  
“It’s okay. We’re not exactly twins -- and I’m not sick,” Klaus said with a proud smile. “It’s for my brother.”  
“You’re sick?” The cashier looked at Diego with a raised brow.  
“No,” he sighed, “he means our other brother.”

Speaking of brothers and twins, Five was surprised to find Allison and Vanya speaking in hushed tones in the living room. He licked the peanut butter off his fingers as he stood in the entryway and watched them deep in conversation  
“I don’t know, Van. But I’ve never seen him so sick, he’s always had a pretty decent immune system”.  
“But then how did he get so sick?” Vanya asked, voice soft and scared. “I don’t get it.”  
“Of course you don’t,” Five cut in, crossing his arms smugly over his chest as he stepped into. Allison whipped her head up at him and shot him daggers.   
“You don’t even know what we’re talking about, Five.”  
“Let me guess, you’re talking about Luther, who is sick, and you’re trying to figure out how it happened.”   
“Is this some sort of weird twin thing?”  
“No, Allison. It’s a having-a-brain thing.”  
Five explained how it really hadn’t been that difficult to figure it out, even without his ability to literally jump through his brother’s locked bedroom door -- which he’d only done once, when he heard him whimpering, thank you very much. The fact that Luther had been holed up in his room for two days was enough for him to draw that conclusion -- and let’s just say the largest Hargreeves sibling wasn’t exactly the best at stifling his sneezes. Plus, Five had passed by the pot of chicken soup boiling on the stove. It had to be for someone.  
“And to answer your previous question,” Five turned to Vanya, “have you ever tried living in complete isolation for four years? Because I doubt you would feel very healthy when -- “  
“We come bearing gifts!” Klaus stood in the doorway to the house, holding up one of the paper bags from the drugstore up above his head with a huge grin on his face. Even despite his chipper energy, his red-tinged nose and slightly-more-pronounced than usual pallor was unmistakable. As was the slight hoarseness of his voice.  
Diego trailed behind with two more bags, filled to the brim. You couldn’t even see his face behind them. Vanya rushed to grab one of the bags off of Diego. As they started unpacking everything, Klaus started laughing.   
He joked, “What, are we opening up our very own hospital?”   
“Come here, ghost boy. We’ve gotta get some of this stuff in you,” Diego ordered.   
Klaus groaned and sat down next to his stabby brother. Diego opened the Emergen-C and a water bottle and poured the drink mix in. He shook it up and handed it to Klaus who just set it down beside him.   
“Drink it, headass,” Five said.   
Again, Klaus groaned. He opened the bottle and drank about a quarter of it. As soon as he put the bottle down, Diego was forcing pills into his hands. Mucinex and Sudafed along with a couple of cough drops.   
“I’m not sick!” Klaus said.  
Vanya jumped in, “You’re going to catch it. The thermometer I brought downstairs that Diego took your temperature with...I had just used it on Luther and I don’t think we cleaned it in between uses, and...yeah.”  
“Hh’-gkSCHh-nGXTchiew! Hh’tsxchyuu!” Klaus caught the sneezes in his palms like normal, but what he forgot was that Diego’s sweatshirt was about four times his size and the sleeves draped over his hands. “Sorry.” He sniffled lightly.   
“Bless you,” Allison said pointedly.   
The attention of the whole room was on Klaus, something he’d usually bask in but this time he felt vulnerable and uncomfortable in the spotlight.   
He grumbled, “I’m not sick! I sneeze all the time!”  
Five shrugged, “He’s not wrong.” Still he picked up the thermometer off of the coffee table and blinked over to Klaus’ side. “Open up.”  
“Really? This? Agai-ow, what the hell, Five?” Klaus scolded, as his tiniest sibling tried to shove the thermometer in his mouth as he was speaking. Klaus ripped the device out of his brother’s hand and put it in his mouth. After it beeped, he looked at it. “Look, 98.7. It’s pretty much the same as last time.”  
“You went up a tenth of a degree,” Diego noted.   
Klaus rolled his eyes. “What-fucking-ever, Diego!”   
“Take the pills already!”  
“That’s the first time I’ve ever heard that from you,” Klaus chuckled.   
It was Diego’s turn to roll his eyes. “Yeah and it’s the fucking last time too so don’t get used to it.”  
Klaus ignored him and swallowed the pills dry. With another threatening look from Five, he took another swig of the Emergen-C.   
“I’m gonna go check on Luther,” Allison said.   
Five added, “I’ll come with. I’ve yet to see him in all his sick glory.”  
The two disappeared, Five actually walking with Allison instead of blinking away.  
“Hehht’TSCHHhyeu-nkTT!” Klaus moaned lightly after.   
“Bless you. Where’s Ben?”  
Klaus rubbed his nose vigorously. “Uhh, he’s right here. Yeah. No, no I’m not. Shut the hell up! Whatever.” He turned to face his visible siblings. “I will not be manifesting Ben for the time being, as he is being a complete bitch!”  
“What’s he doing?” Vanya asked.   
“Pestering me! He’s all like ‘Oooohhh Klaus! This is exactly how Luther was at the start! Blah blah blah!’ like, I don’t care!” Klaus ranted. “I feel fine! I know that you’re all used to me being useless but I actually think I’m okay for once and no one will hip off my fucking dick!”   
It was silent. Klaus sighed. He felt guilty. Sure, Ben was annoying him but Klaus was the only way his siblings could see Ben. He couldn’t keep him from them like he was his master. He didn’t want to be like that.  
“Whatever,” Klaus muttered. Slowly, Ben became visible.   
Klaus tuned out the conversation as he slumped back down on the couch. 

Up in Luther’s room, Allison and Five were trying to give Luther everything they could without absolutely filling his stomach cavity with different types of medicine. They used some spray Klaus found that was supposed to numb your sore throat. Luther said it didn’t work.  
They waited a few minutes after applying everything. Allison was impatient to see improvement. She hated seeing any of her siblings feel like this, especially Luther. He was supposed to be their leader, and when he couldn’t lead them who was supposed to?   
For the next hour, Allison checked Luther’s temperature every fifteen minutes. It finally dropped back down to 100. Still a fever, not not nearly as bad as his 103.4 degree fever from before.   
“Allison?” Luther asked weakly. His voice had become so much more raw and broken as his coughing had increased. “Can I have another cough drop? My throat hurts so badly.”  
Allison nods and goes to give him another one. She hands him two this time, just in case. She then announces that she’s going to go get some tea for him because the cough drops aren’t working as well as she’d like.   
All Allison can think about is how sick Luther was. She had had to change his shirt because of how sweat-soaked he was. Luther was obviously embarrassed but he let Allison do it without complaining. That was a big clue to Allison that he was really miserable. He had started having more productive coughs, ones that were wet so everyone in the room could feel his sickness.   
Five had left shortly after Allison had taken Luther’s temperature the second time. She didn’t know where he went, but she knew that Five didn’t like seeing his brother in such discomfort. Luther wasn’t one to really show how he was feeling. He was almost always still as a stone. It was odd for them to see him break his walls down for once. 

As Allison poured the tea into the kettle, a quiet voice asked, “Can I have some? Only if there’s enough water. Diego said I should keep drinking it just in case.”  
“Of course. Sit down,” Allison said.   
It was Klaus who had entered the room and he sat down quickly and quietly. Allison would have noticed that he was acting off if she wasn’t so worried about Luther.   
“I’m gonna take this up to Luther and then I’ll come back down to hang out with you,” she promised.   
Klaus shook his head, “No no no, you don’t have to. You can stay with Luther, I know you want to. You don’t have to feel obligated to stick around. I’ve got Ben here.”  
“Klaus, I want to hang out with you,” Allison’s voice faltered. “I thought it would be nice.” She couldn’t help but be upset that Klaus thought she was only offering to hang out with him out of pity. That’s what Klaus was used to: people pitying him.   
“Oh, okay then.” He grabbed a napkin off of the center of the table and held it up over his face. “Hh’eiishieww-ishhew! H’nxght!”   
“Bless you. You sure you’re feeling alright?”  
Klaus nodded, “Must be pollen or something. Diego took my temperature and I feel pretty okay otherwise. I’ve been sneezing all day, but that’s something I’m pretty used to.”  
He was right. Klaus was a pretty sneezy guy. Due to his several-year-long relationship with snorting cocaine, Klaus was set off by almost every strong smell there was. He had grown up being allergic to pollen and he had found out in his late teens that he was quite allergic to cats. Klaus wondered if there was anything Luther even could be allergic to on the moon. Moon dust? Recycled air? He didn’t know.   
“As long as you’re not feeling too badly,” Allison said.   
“Hihh...hh...fuck I...hh’ishhyu! Ugh. My god!”   
Allison giggled.  
“What?”  
“Nothing,” Allison continued laughing.   
Klaus feigned anger. “What’s so funny?”  
“You just had that dramatic ass buildup for that tiny sneeze!” She confessed.   
Klaus cracked a smile but then quickly went back to faking his furiousness. “My sneezes aren’t tiny! They’re quite average, thank you very much! They come out so damn fast sometimes, it’s like they’re all on top of one another. They all fuck me in the ass one after another. It’s like a damn orgy but without any orgasming.”  
“One time I read that if you sneeze enough it can make you orgasm,” Allison doted. “Not sure if that’s true though.”  
“I’ll have to try it out someday,” Klaus said. “Not today though.”  
Allison joked, “You better be quiet about it because Diego would not be happy to hear about you triggering your allergies or your asthma on purpose.”  
“You’re doing what?” Diego’s voice came in.   
“Nothing! Just fun and games, that’s all,” Klaus said.   
“Allison mentioned your asthma is it acting up? Are you feeling alright? Christ, Klaus you have to tell us these things Allison where’s the thermometer-“  
Klaus laughed, “Calm the hell down, Diego. It’s not acting up, I promise. I’ll tell you if it is, you know that!”  
It was times like this where Klaus really saw how much Diego cared for him. He could become so worried in .2 seconds and it always threw Klaus off of his game. Part of Klaus’ whole routine was people not caring about him and it kind of threw a wrench in things when people started to care.  
Diego looked at Allison with the same urgency, only calming down a bit when she nodded her head in agreement with Klaus, who was sniffling and rubbing at his nose.  
“You mentioned his asthma --”  
“In jest, Diego. Jeez, lighten up!” Klaus play-chastised his brother, shoving him lightly with his free hand, which of course left his brother completely unfazed. Diego was similarly unfazed by Allison’s explanation of their previous discussion. While Allison and Klaus chuckled again, Diego’s jaw remaining locked and he rolled his eyes.  
“Hilarious. Klaus is getting sick, Luther’s upstairs hacking his lungs out and you think it’s the perfect time for a stand-up routine.”  
There was a silence after that. The spoon Allison was using to stir a cup of tea hovered in mid-air. Even Klaus’ sniffling and nose rubbing stopped as he stared at Allison in excitement, waiting for her response. Finally, she started stirring the cup of tea again.  
“Yes, Diego. My brothers are sick,” she said, voice calm. A small smile on her lips. “And I’m making them feel better by being a nice, pleasant presence. You should try it, god forbid you might like it.”  
“For real, D, don’t be a dick. Sissy is a mom, she’s the best at this kind of thing -- see?” Klaus took the cup of tea from her hand as she offered it. “Thanks, Ally!” He blew on it as Diego shot him a look. “Hey, you’re good at this stuff, too, man!” he quickly added on. Klaus was truly grateful for all of the times Diego had helped him out in the past when he was sick, before he was sober. But now his brother went into panic mode the second he heard him sniffle. It really killed his vibe.   
“You’re just a little… intense,” Klaus said with a small grin, quickly covering it up as he raised the mug to his lips. He sipped way too quickly. Not only did he burn his tongue, but steam rising from the mug made his nose itch. He rubbed at it again to delay the inevitable reaction.  
“Well, if you’d been in my shoes all these years maybe you’d understand why I don’t think it’s funny to see you make a joke out of it when you’re sick.”  
“But I’m not even sick!” Klaus bit back, in that same whiny tone Diego had become familiar with over the years. His nose chose the perfect time to finalize its reaction in that moment. He hastily set the tea down on the counter as he again buried his face in his hoodie sleeve. “nxXGsht-ixgtshu! Hih! H’dtZshiuhh--fuck!”  
“Not sick my ass-”  
“Bless you!” The three siblings whipped their heads to the entrance to the kitchen, but Vanya was standing at the stove seconds later, having rushed in in a panic. She was just as bad as Diego. She fussed over the large pot of soup boiling on the stove, lifting a small spoonful up to her mouth to taste-test and blowing on it. “Diego, I told you to watch it while I was gone!”  
“Sorry, Van, I was too busy watching over our idiot brother.”  
“Rude!” Klaus gasped, moving his hand to cover his mouth in pretend shock.  
“Klaus, what’s wrong? Are you feeling sick yet?” Vanya asked, as if it was an inevitability. She turned to look at him for concern, the spoon still raised to her lips, her anxiety over his well being overpowering her anxiety over dinner. Diego swapped anxieties with her, diving in with another spoon and tasting the soup without blowing on it before she could bring the spoon to her lips. He burned his tongue in his haste, but he nodded through the little wince of pain.  
“It’s done.” Vanya shifted her focus back to her own soup-filled spoon and finally tasted it, nodding in agreement.  
“Klaus, come get your soup.” Vanya started ladling the soup into the six bowls she had laid out.  
“Wait, it’s for me?” her curly-haired brother asked in mild shock (again, people caring about him was not the reality he’d known most of his life). Though what came across was annoyance as he crossed his arms over his chest. He’d sat at the counter watching them prepare the soup for the last hour, sniffling discreetly and rubbing his nose as Diego rapidly chopped vegetables and flung them into the pot with perfect accuracy, Vanya quietly stirring and adding the seasonings. “Give it to Luther, he’s the one who needs it. I’m not--”  
“Klaus, eat the damn soup!” Ben had apparently appeared behind him, and he could hear the eye-roll in his voice. Klaus’ living siblings had blinked at him when he’d apparently cut himself off mid-sentence, assuming he was going to sneeze, since he’d cut himself off in the middle of the sentence. When it didn’t happen, Allison sprung into action, picking up a bowl and putting it into Klaus’ hands. She chuckled as she brought a perfectly manicured hand up to his cheek and patted it gently.  
“Klaus, do you really think we made this whole pot of soup just for you? And you guys say I’m a narcissist.” Klaus watched as Diego shook his head and walked over to the table with a bowl of soup, Allison and Vanya following shortly after.  
“Oh.” Klaus looked down at the soup in his hands and tried to hide the little smile that had formed on his face. He knew for a fact that they had made the soup because of Luther and him, and even if he was convinced he wasn’t sick, the fact that they cared so much and they were going to make a family dinner out of it made him feel just a little bit warm and fuzzy.  
“Where’s Luther?” Klaus asked as he set his soup down on a placemat. “Shouldn’t he be the one we’re worried about feeding?”  
“He’ll eat in his room. He needs to be quarantined,” Diego said, blowing on a spoonful of his own soup.  
“I’ll bring him some!” Klaus rose from his seat.  
“Absolutely not.” Diego shot him daggers. Klaus slumped down into his seat with a pout and scooped up a spoonful of soup. “Allison, why don’t you bring it--”  
“Oh, no, let him be. He’s asleep.”  
“Again?” Allison gaped. “Well I guess that’s what his body needs more right now.”  
“Mmmhmm,” Vanya responded a little too quickly, putting her water glass to her lips almost immediately afterwards and taking a big, audible gulp. All these years and she was still a terrible liar. Thankfully, everyone was so preoccupied with eating -- and, in Klaus’ case, trying not to sneeze -- that they’d let it slide.

Around twenty minutes prior, Vanya had left her precious soup entrusted to Diego’s care and walked upstairs to Luther’s room to check on him and ask if he was ready for dinner. Afraid that he might actually be asleep, she opened the door slowly and carefully, not making a sound. The sight that greeted her had been pretty surprising, and even more so touching.  
Luther was lying on his bed in the fetal position, barely fitting on the twin XL mattress. His blankets had been pulled back up to his chin, hopefully due to the fever breaking. He was wheezing in that careful way that meant one miscalculated breath would send him into the harsh, liquidy coughs he’d been producing for the past hour or so, thanks to the hefty dose of Mucinex.   
And at his side sat Five, probably the only one of the siblings who could fit next to Luther’s massive frame on the bed. He looked down at his brother with intense concentration, brows furrowed as he traced constellations on his broad back with his index finger.  
“Gemini,” he announced softly. Despite his expression, his voice carried an air of tenderness Vanya hadn’t heard from him in years. Not since they were kids, and even then it was rare. And he never used it on her. Only Luther, and only when he really needed it.  
“The twins,” Luther wheezed out, a small smile playing on his lips, which quickly dissipated as his jaw went slack with a shaky breath. Five quickly retracted his hand, just as Luther buried his face in his blankets. “Heh-nGXTchiew! Hahh-nXXT!” He was stifling again, and judging by the slight curl in Five’s lip, Vanya knew the reason why. Five had never done well with germs, and she caught his slight flinch when Luther’s blanketed form contracted a third time. “S-heh!-sorryfive-  
‘nGXTSCH! Hhh’nXGTschiehh. Hhh… heh!”   
Luther tensed in anticipation, and so did Five; Vanya could tell he was about to bounce. So she decided to be a good sister and do something about it.  
Concentrating on the sound of Luther’s breathing, she focused her energy on his nose, sending little waves of energy flowing outwards against the walls of his nostrils from within, and thus applying pressure from the inside out; something she’d been doing to herself lately, whenever she had to sneeze in a crowded place, or just didn’t want to attract any attention to herself. She released her hold when Luther’s breathing evened out.  
As if on cue, Luther let out a deep, wheezy sigh. Five relaxed again, chuckling a bit as he put his finger back gently on his brother’s back.  
“That was a first. Gesundheit!” His voice still held the soft tone Vanya had feared it might lose. “How about Libra next?”  
With a small smile on her face, Vanya had slipped out of the room even more quietly than she’d came in.  
She walked back to the kitchen, satisfied with her ability to stop Luther from sneezing, and she wondered if she could possibly do the opposite. She would get to test this theory out at dinner.


	4. chapter 4

As Vanya zoned back into the conversation, Diego was in the middle of scolding Klaus who had accidentally spilled his soup. “Be more careful, Klaus. You burned your leg pretty badly!”

“Sorry I was fucking sneezing, Diego! It’s kind of hard not to burn yourself when you’re eating boiling hot soup and you have to sneeze every two seconds,” Klaus explained.

Diego bit, “How about you put the bowl on the table like a normal person?”

“Why are you being a dick?” Klaus shouted.

The room fell silent.

“Seriously, Diego, fucking lay off. You keep saying you’re concerned about me but all you’re doing is yelling at me and making me feel shitty!” Klaus ran his hand through his hair. “It’s making me more miserable than the incessant sneezing!”

Diego didn’t say anything.

“Whatever, I’m going upstairs,” Klaus muttered.

Vanya interjected, “No, don’t. Come on, Klaus, stay down here. Finish up your soup and then I’ll go into the living room to watch a movie with you.” Klaus didn’t say anything, he just kept staring at the ground. “I’ll let you pick and I’ll make us popcorn.”

“Fine. But only if Diego won’t be there,” Klaus snapped. “Ihh-hitschue! Fuck! Hihhh…huhh….”

“You alright, Klaus?” Allison asked as Klaus’ breath continued to hitch.

“Fucking fanta-hahhh-fantastic….oh god….hihhh….”

It was Vanya’s time to shine. Without calling attention to herself, she tried to channel the energy and the waves around her. She focused as hard as she could on using the energy to vibrate along Klaus’ septum. Klaus looked like he was on the cusp of sneezing when Vanya got an idea. She ceased her powers altogether, and Klaus’ hitching breaths halted.

“Oh my god it tickles so bad,” Klaus whined. He scrubbed as hard as he could to repel the itch. Vanya controlled the waves again and sent a malicious vibration zooming around Klaus’ entire nose, and then she stopped it almost a second later. Klaus’ breath hitched wildly and he then lost the sneeze.

Vanya was amused with her powers, so much that she honestly had forgotten that she was toying with Klaus.

“I ha…a…have to sneeze so…hihhh….so fuckingbadly-hahhh….oh my,” Klaus sniffled. He took a tissue and blew his nose. Vanya tried to use her powers to push energy out of Klaus’ nose, seeing if that would help him clear his nasal cavity any better. And it did. Klaus was left a little sniffly, but he could breathe.

Now that Vanya knew she could do that, she went back to messing with Klaus’ need to sneeze.

She teased him for another few minutes or so and then she really realized what she was doing. Klaus had tears running down his cheeks, his nose was running wildly and he had a tissue poised in front of his nose–not quite touching his face, more like hovering in front–so he could catch the impending sneezes, if they ever came. When Vanya saw how miserable she looked she realized she needed to give him the satisfaction he was craving. So, she did all she could to intensify the tickle with as much power as possible.

As if on cue, Klaus’ breath hitched wildly, deeper than he normally would, resulting in an abnormally powerful sneeze from his frail body.

“Huhh’ENXtshyuu!!” His curls bounced wildly as his face snapped forward into the tissue. Vanya flinched; she hadn’t expected that out of him. None of his siblings had. They stared at him in surprise, spoons held halfway to their lips.

“Jesus, Klaus—”

“N-not done - heh! HhhrETDZshiew!” Klaus snapped forward into the tissue again with a slightly less powerful explosion. “HiehHTShiew-xnGST! Fuhh-nXGTshyuu-fuck!” As they died down in intensity, they increased in rapidity, falling one on top of the other. “Hih’eshyuu-nXGt! xxngt-ishyuu! Hh’tschiuehh!” In a last ditch effort, Klaus pinched the damp tissue around his nose. “hh’xgtsh! ihh’ngxt! Hh’nxshiuu - hih!” He paused for a moment, mouth agape and eyes squinted before his shoulders settled down again and he released the breath in a sigh. “Sorry,” he mumbled, voice small as he rubbed at his nose with the remnants of the tissue.

“Sorry, what was that about not being sick?” Diego asked.

Klaus rolled his eyes. “You know, you could say, like, bless you, or something. You don’t need to skip straight to the bitchy comments.”

“You’re sick! That’s all I’m saying.”

“I’m leaving. For real this time. Vanya, sorry, I’m not in the mood for a movie.”

Without giving anyone else the chance to speak, Klaus stood up and strode out of the room.

“Diego, what the hell?” Allison rose her voice.

Diego said, “He’s sick!”

“Give him some fucking sympathy then!”

“Hhh-hhieshhiew!” Came from the hallway.

Vanya called, “Bless you!”

There was no response, just the sound of stomping on the stairs and then the slamming of a door.

Vanya added, “Really, Diego, you have to give him a break. This honestly seems more like allergies than it does a cold. He might not be sick, and even if he is you have to lighten up on him!”

“No, he needs to take care of himself! If I have to see him in a damn hospital bed one more time, I-“

“Diego he has a cold! And he might not even actually have one!” Allison argued.

Diego tried, “I-I…I’ve just seen him really sick. It’s always bad. H-h-he gets so weak and…and he…”

“Take your time,” Vanya said.

He took a deep breath. “I’ve seen Klaus almost dead too many times. When he’s sick it gets bad fast. I can’t see him like that it-it breaks my heart!” Diego explained. “It’s easier to show my concern through anger than it is through actual concern.”

Both Vanya and Allison felt a pang in their hearts. Diego and Klaus had remained in touch and all of the others knew it. They were the closest out of the siblings, well except for Ben who literally was almost always with Klaus.

It didn’t surprise either of them that Diego’s anger was really just poorly disguised worry.

“Still, Klaus is…fragile. He’s gone through a lot,” said Vanya.

Diego knew that and he understood it perfectly well. There was just something inside of him that became overwhelmed with concern whenever Klaus wasn’t feeling well or if he got hurt. Diego was always the one there for Klaus when he overdosed or when he was mugged or when it was the middle of winter and Klaus didn’t have a home. He had seen him with pneumonia, bronchitis, hypothermia, and several bad injuries. Diego knew that whenever Klaus caught something little it would become something nasty because he never took care of himself.

This always led to Diego becoming overprotective and being on edge for the entire time that Klaus was sick, and it only got worse as it happened more frequently. Maybe it was the fact that Diego knew nothing about this illness. He hadn’t seen Luther at all yet and he figured he might as well go and see what Klaus was up against.

“I’m going to go see how Luther’s doing. I’ll stop by Klaus’ room on the way back and see if he’ll let me talk to him,” Diego announced.

When he arrived in Luther’s room, Five was sitting on his bed chatting with the ill boy. Diego knocked as he walked in.

“How you doin’ Luther?” He asked.

Luther rasped, “Been better. What are you doing up here? Who’s watching Klaus?”

Diego chuckled softly. Luther was always trying to make sure his team was doing well. “He and I aren’t on the best terms right now. I’ll check on him later though, okay? How are you really feeling?”

“It’s so awful, Diego. I’m pretty sure my skin is melting,” Luther said. He coughed productively into his elbow.

“You should get to bed, Luther. I’ll grab the humidifier from Klaus’ room,” Five said. Before Luther could protest, Five blinked out and back in with the humidifier. He set it up quickly.

After a few minutes of talking to Luther, Diego could see the good it was doing for Luther’s cough. The dry air in his room must have been suffocating him before. Diego moved closer into the room and sat down on Luther’s desk. He wanted to be close to him but there was no way in hell he was going to let himself catch whatever it was Luther had.

Somehow for a guy as big as he was, Luther looked gaunt. His face had an alarming pallor which threw Diego off greatly. Luther’s normally stern expression was replaced with an exhausted one, as if he hadn’t slept in days. Diego guessed that he probably hadn’t been able to sleep well for the past few nights.

“Hh…Klaushandmeatissue-hhK’TschOO! Hh-k’ISHHIEW!” Luther sneezed into his blankets, then accepted a tissue from Diego.

“It’s Diego, by the way. Not Klaus,” Diego said.

Luther wiped his nose as much as he could. “Sorry, I think my fever is messing with my brain.”

“It definitely is. You should have heard him earlier,” Five laughed. “Speaking of, though, we should take your temperature again. It’s been a few hours and you’ve had some medicine in you for quite a while.

Diego picked up the thermometer and handed it to Luther so he could do his thing. After the thermometer beeped, Luther said, “100.7, that’s not bad.”

“Yeah, well it’s still not good.” Diego took the thermometer and put it in his pocket, making himself a mental note to fucking clean it this time. “When can you have more fever reducers?”

Luther shrugged.

The Hargreeves’ were not the best at understanding the concept of time–save for Five–especially when they were ill. Diego did the math in his head and told Luther his schedule of doses, but then he doubted that Luther would ever remember any of it so he wrote it down on a sticky note next to his bedside table.

“Will you check up on Klaus for me?” Luther asked. “I haven’t seen him in a few hours and…I don’t know. I don’t want him to be feeling as miserable as I do.”

Diego nodded, “You got it, big guy. Call me if you need anything, or just get the human teleportation device to grab it for you. I’ll come back in a little while and tell you how he’s doing, okay?”

After gaining confirmation from Luther, Diego walked into the hallway. Instead of turning into Klaus’ room he walked into the bathroom first. He didn’t really know how to wash a thermometer properly but he took a washcloth and soaked it in warm water and a tiny bit of soap and scrubbed down the tip of the thermometer. After a few good scrubs Diego decided it should be clean enough and he took it to Klaus’ room.

He went to open the door but it was locked.

“Klaus, can you open up?” Diego asked.

“No.”

Diego sighed, “Please, I just want to talk to you. I want to apologize, okay?”

“I don’t want to get up.”

“Manifest Ben for two seconds and have him do it?” Diego suggested.

Sure enough, Ben opened the door. Diego was about to thank him but he disappeared quickly. He looked at Klaus and frowned.

“Hey,” Diego said.

Klaus muttered, “Hi. What was it you wanted again? To bully me some more while I’m already not at my prime?”

“Why aren’t you at your prime?”

“Forget it, Diego. I didn’t mean it.” Klaus turned his head so he didn’t have to make eye contact with Diego anymore.

So, Diego forgot it. He said, “I just wanted to say I’m sorry about earlier. You were right, I shouldn’t have been so rude to you, it’s just…I get so worried about you, Klaus. You know that I’ve seen you several times on what I thought would be your deathbed. When I see you getting sick or even having the potential of getting sick…it scares the shit out of me. I’m always scared that if you get a cold it’s going to turn into pneumonia and then it’s going to kill you! You’re j-just so…so unpredictable and your body seems to hate you and it terrifies me!”

Diego didn’t even realize that he was ranting until he finished. Klaus had his crooked old smile on his face.

“It’s alright, Diego, don’t worry about it. I know you were just looking out for me.” He set his knitting needles down and pushed himself up on his elbows, patting the space beside him on the bed. Diego reluctantly sat down, just barely perched on the edge, still tense with guilt. “I’m sorry, too. I overreacted, you know how I can get when I’m - when people take care of me.” Diego relaxed a bit and cracked a smile.

“Yeah, I know. Remember December of 2015?” Klaus actually shuddered a bit at the memory; Diego had made him go to the hospital on Christmas Eve, and he’d ended up spending four days there, with the worst pneumonia of his life, coupled with unintentional withdrawals. And he’d been a total dickhead to Diego every time he’d come to visit, accusing him of holding him hostage and “ruining Christmas” for him.

“Ahh, jeez. Why did you have to bring that up? You know I’m -ht’shjuh! Enxgt-eh’tschiew! Sorry.”

“Bless you. Yeah, I know.” Diego was reminded of his purpose there, and he held the thermometer out for Klaus. With a sigh, Klaus put it in his mouth. He’d resigned himself to the fact that he might have a fever when the warmth he thought had come from eating the soup didn’t go away after a half hour.

When it beeped, Diego grabbed it from him before he could read it. Even despite their previous conversation, he didn’t trust Klaus to tell the truth if his temperature had risen.

“99.5.” Diego’s face fell, and he looked at Klaus with worry. “That’s a fever.”

“Well, shit.” Klaus looked towards his crossed legs, refusing to meet Diego’s gaze. “I guess you were right. Sorry for being such a little bitch.”

“Hey, don’t be sorry.” Diego took the thermometer back. He bit down on his lip as he watched Klaus shrink in on himself a bit. “Hey, Vanya and Allison are gonna watch a movie, if you still want to. I don’t think they started yet.”

“I don’t know,” Klaus’ voice was small. “I’d probably ruin the movie by sneezing every five seconds.” He rubbed at his nose harshly as if he needed to prove his point any more than he already had.

“They’re gonna watch Legally Blonde 2.” Klaus perked up a bit at that; they all knew it was his comfort movie. “Come on, let’s go get you medicated and then I’ll make some popcorn.”

“Ugh, fine!”

Before they could even start the film, Diego had to run to the store to buy more corn kernels (Klaus insisted on homemade popcorn), actually make the popcorn, and run upstairs to check on Luther. Which led to him calming down a panicky Five (“It only went up .3 degrees, he’ll be fine!”), and giving his brother another fever reducer before insisting he call it a night. If anyone asked, he definitely did not tuck Luther in.

By the time they’d popped the film in, it was 9 pm, and Diego was exhausted. He was squished between Allison and Vanya on one couch, with Klaus sprawled across the other all by himself. He also had his own bowl of popcorn, which he’d claimed was a necessity now that he was confirmed to be sick, and he might be contagious.

To no one’s surprise, Five turned down their offer to join them. Klaus wasn’t sad about it; he’d bitched about the “tonal inconsistencies” and continuity errors the whole time they’d made him watch it the last time Klaus was sick, and the whole film had lost its charm.

Within the first half hour of the film, Diego was starting to drift off. Klaus’ surprising lack of sneeziness (thank you Vanya) only made it easier for him to fall asleep for minutes at a time. Still, he refused to go to, bed. They all knew he was only staying up to make sure Klaus went to bed at a reasonable hour. Vanya had taken to lightly touching his shoulder every few minutes, in response to which he would suddenly stir and mumble, “I’m awake!”

It wasn’t until he started snoring for the third time that Klaus finally lost his patience and manifested Ben, who yelled at Diego that he would watch over their sick brothers while he slept. Allison and Vanya giggled as Diego frantically nodded and agreed. He checked Klaus’ temperature one final time (“99.2°, let’s hope it stays that way”) before calling a night.

Not long after he left, Allison announced that she was going to bed too. And although she pulled off a convincing fake yawn, Vanya and Klaus both shot each other identical looks. They knew she was just going up to check on Luther. Vanya confirmed that suspicion after the film ended when she went up to check on him herself, only to find Allison already quietly fussing over him. She watched as Allison pulled the blankets up to his chin, noting his new t-shirt and the clean set of sheets on his nightstand. Once again, Vanya slipped out of the room just as quietly as she’d come in.

Klaus hadn’t managed to make it upstairs to his own room before he started dozing off on the couch. He was tired anyway, and the pills made the ghosts a bit quieter. And with Ben at his side humming some silly old song, it was impossible for him to not fall asleep.


	5. chapter 5

Reginald Hargreeves would be pleased; for once, all six of his remaining children were asleep at a reasonable hour. Imagine his disappointment when the one stumbling around in the kitchen at 3 am was his precious, obedient-to-a-fault Number One.

Luther had woken up sweltering and parched. His sheets were sticking to his skin. He’d changed his t-shirt a third time and downed the glass of water Allison had left on his nightstand. An when that proved ineffective on his burning throat, he’d stumbling downstairs for more. But not before pulling on a hoodie and his gloves. As uncomfortably hot as he was, he’d had enough of his siblings seeing his arms in the past day to last a lifetime. The off-chance that one of them was lurking around in the kitchen at this hour was enough to make him put long sleeves on.

In a repeat of the previous morning, he downed three glasses of water in a row at the kitchen sink. Once again, the cold made him shiver; the hoodie wasn’t seeming like such a bad idea anymore. And once again, when he washed his glass in the sink, the steam tugged at his sinuses. Only now, his nose was raw, shot from all the sneezing and forceful nose-blowing it had been subjected to throughout the night. Knowing there was no way out of it, he raised his gloved hand to his nose and pinched it shut.

“h’NXGT! Hih-GNXXT!” His body shook with the force of the sneezes, but the burning feeling didn’t die down. In fact, it only got worse, and the shaky breath that followed sent him lurching forward against his fist. “EhGNXT-chiew! Hrr’NGSTch!” Stifling was proving ineffective, and Luther had to thin fast. With a loud, shivery gasp, he quickly brought his elbow to his nose instead. “Hhr’KSCH! Ih-GNXST! Hah! ..hih?! Heh-KSCHIEW! Heh-NXGT-chiew!”

“Christ on a cracker!” Luther turned around and saw Klaus leaning against the wall. “Were you trying to give me a damn heart attack?”

Luther’s heart dropped when he saw Klaus, who seemed to be even more pale and shaky than usual. Automatically, Luther stepped back and wiped his nose on his sleeve. He didn’t really have a reason to do so seeing as Klaus had clearly already caught whatever was bringing Luther down, but it made Luther feel better so he did it anyway.

“What are you doing up?” Luther asked.

“I could ask you the same thing.”

Luther sighed. “I couldn’t sleep. My throat is killing me and I can’t stop sneezing. What about you?”

Klaus shrugged, “I don’t get much sleep normally and the nightmares that come with a fever are always a million times worse so I-”

“You have a fever?”

“Yeah, yeah I do. I haven’t checked my temperature since like ten o’clock though,” Klaus admitted.

Luther looked around the counter until he found the thermometer and he then handed it over to Klaus. “Check again?”

Obediently, Klaus took the thermometer and put it in his mouth. When he took it out and looked at it he winced. “It’s not the best. Might explain why I feel a little bit like I’m floating,” Klaus joked.

“What is it?”

“Nothing too bad. It’s 102.4 so it went up a couple degrees.” Klaus rubbed at his sweaty forehead and took a deep breath. “That explains why the nightmares were so bad then,” he mumbled to himself.

Luther asked, “What do you see in the nightmares? Like, what happens?”

“Hetschiew! Ah, sorry. Um, I don’t know. It’s mostly flashes of dead people who have died in really horrific ways. I mean, I see that all the time but in the nightmares, it’s just them touching me and trying to keep me in the world of the dead, I guess. I don’t know.” The way Klaus shrugged it off nonchalantly amazed Luther.

Klaus really was an enigma. He could be so dramatic and inflated about the tiniest situations just for fun, but when it came to serious things he never spoke a word. There were so many things that his siblings didn’t know about him and they would just come up in random situations and Klaus always explained them so casually, as if it was an everyday thing. It bothered Luther to a certain degree that there was so much that Klaus had gone through that Luther was never able to protect him from.

“That’s… jesus, Klaus, that sounds really horrible.” Klaus just shrugged.

“I’m used to it. It’ll be back to normal soon enough.” Luther bit down on his lip. He couldn’t even imagine accepting that as “normal.”

“I’m sorry if I ever…” Luther heaved a sigh. “I don’t mean to be dismissive about the things you go through. I should acknowledge it more.”

“You’re fine, Lu! It’s really not that bad.”

“I just -hh’XGSHH!- it’s hard for me t- h’gnXT! to-”

“Speak?” Klaus cut him off. They both chuckled a bit after that, until Luther sniffled and shook his head, gaze shifting to the floor.

“I don’t know, I just… I guess it’s just… I know there’s nothing I can do about it.” He caught Klaus’ eyes for a moment but then looked down at his feet again. “And that makes me feel really shitty.” Their gazes met again for a split second; this time, Klaus was the one who looked away. He appreciated the sentiment, but that didn’t make it any less awkward. And although he could tell Luther was genuine, he couldn’t help but feel pitied. And that was a feeling Klaus couldn’t handle.

“I think the fehh- hhn’tshiu-et’shyu! Fever is making you delirious.” He took the thermometer, that was still in his hand, and held it out to Luther.

“No, Klaus, I’m being serious, I-” Klaus cut him off by putting the thermometer in his mouth.

“No talking!” He grinned as Luther rolled his eyes, but nonetheless obliged. After a long minute of Luther pinching and rubbing at his nose, it finally beeped. He ripped it out of his mouth and turned away from Klaus immediately, holding the thermometer out to him in one hand and squelching his nose with the other.

“Heh’GTCHU! hh’NXXT!” Klaus pulled the thermometer out.

“Huh. 100.7, not bad. Maybe I’m the delirious one.”

“That wouldn’t be much of a change then, huh?” Luther joked. He caught Klaus’ expression of sadness before it quickly morphed into a forced laugh. “Hey I…I didn’t mean that.”

Klaus waved his hand. “Don’t worry about it, it’s what we’re all thinking,” Klaus said.

“Is Ben here?” Luther asked. Klaus nodded. “Do you think you can manifest him or will that take too much of the energy that you don’t have?”

“I don’t know. I can give it a try,” Klaus offered. He rubbed his hands together quickly and shut his eyes to concentrate. Ben showed up and Klaus opened his eyes.

Ben stuck around for a few minutes. He chatted with Luther and asked him how he was feeling. These conversations were always a bit odd because Ben was always there and the siblings tended to forget that so they would try and fill him in on things he was present for. Ben was always kind about it and never told the siblings that he already knew what they were telling him. Klaus told Ben constantly that he should correct them because even though he’s not there to them he’s still there. Ben didn’t want to do that to his siblings.

Klaus didn’t love it. It was one of the downsides of manifesting Ben. Another, that was rearing its ugly head at this moment, was that manifesting Ben tended to drain him of all the energy he had, and right now he didn’t have a lot of it.

Ben flickered twice and Luther could see how exhausted Klaus looked.

He suggested, “You know, I love talking to you Ben, but Klaus doesn’t look too hot. Do you think we can talk more when he’s feeling better?”

Ben nodded. “I’ll see you later, Luther.”

“Bye, Ben.”

Klaus let out a deep breath as he unclenched his fists and Ben faded away. He rolled his eyes slightly as Luther said goodbye to Ben. It pissed him off that they said bye because Ben wasn’t going anywhere, but he also understood that his siblings didn’t comprehend that Ben would always be there.

Luther’s voice broke Klaus out of his mind. “I think we should both try and get some sleep,” He said.

“I don’t know. I don’t really want to go back to sleep,” Klaus admitted sheepishly.

That was the moment in which Luther understood. He knew how shitty Klaus felt, he had the same damn sickness he did, and he would give anything to be able to go to sleep. Yet still, Klaus didn’t want to go to sleep because the ghosts were so bad that he wouldn’t even gamble on having a good sleep.

“We can stay up.”

“Hh-ingtshu! Hhhishiew-eshiiew!”

“Bless you.”

“Excuse me?”

“Uh, I said bless you?”

Klaus rolled his eyes. “No no, not that. Before that,” He prodded. He wanted to hear Luther say it again. Klaus thought he must be hallucinating.

“Oh,” Luther scratched the back of his head. “I said that we can stay up.”

In all honesty, Klaus was in disbelief. On the flipside of things, Klaus knew how shitty Luther felt, and he was now offering to stay up with Klaus and sacrifice the rest he was so obviously craving.

Klaus sniffed, “Why would you stay up?”

Luther shrugged. He said, “I guess because I don’t want you to suffer down here alone.”

“Hhheshjuh-hhinxgt! Hehhh! Ugh,” Klaus moaned.

“You’ve got to get some rest, Klaus,” Luther said. He meant it. He had seen his brother on all types of drugs and going through all types of withdrawal, and he doubted he had ever seen Klaus this miserable. He just looked defeated. His usually bright eyes lacked their playful glow. His normally arched eyebrows were furrowed. His instigative smirk was replaced by a slight frown.

Luther wondered if he had looked this pitiful.

“Can you hand me a tissue?” Klaus asked, deflecting Luther’s suggestion.

Instead of fighting against the sudden topic change, Luther stayed silent while he passed Klaus a tissue. Number Four blew his nose quietly but forcefully. When he removed the tissue his nose was laced with a red tinge that made him look even sicker. His nostrils were still glistening, and he must have felt it because he glided the tissue underneath his swollen appendage.

Klaus sniffled thickly. The nose-blowing clearly hadn’t done much for him. That was the story of Luther’s life for the past two and a half days–no amount of nose-blowing was ever enough.

“You should take a decongestant. And you’re probably due for another fever reducer.” Klaus just nodded his eyes behind his tissue.

“Sure thing, Captain.” Even though Klaus’ voice lacked its usual chipper cadence, Luther still smiled a bit at the nickname. He crossed over to the counter where all of the medicine was laid out and started assembling a cocktail of pills. Tylenol, Mucinex, Sudafed — that might help Klaus stay awake a bit longer. It was everything his brother could possibly need. He didn’t have a cough (yet — knock on wood), so Luther didn’t bother with cough syrup. He didn’t know if Klaus should even be drinking that, anyway, given his drug history.

He handed Klaus the pills with some water, instructing him drink the full glass with them. Klaus did as he was told, but quirked a brow at him.

“You’re not gonna take anything?” Luther shook his head. Leave it to Klaus to worry about other’s needs instead of his own. He was probably just trying to detract from his own sickness by focusing on Luther’s, just like he always used to do when they were kids.

“100.7’s not high enough for Tylenol.”

“Well you should at least drink some cough syrup, I could hear you coughing from down here earlier.”

“You could?” Luther seemed more embarrassed than worried. He shook his head again. “No, I can’t remember what time Allison last gave me some and I don’t want to screw up the dosage. Besides, I think it’s getting better.”

“You sure? You still sound wheezy. And you look really pale,” Klaus observed, furrowing his brows slightly at Luther as he sat down on the counter.

“Coming from you?” Luther raised his brows at Klaus, who still looked even more ghastly than usual. Klaus faked a gasp at the counter. The pills seemed to be taking effect, and his tone was becoming more jovial by the minute.

“Rude!” Suddenly, his back was rimrod straight and he had a stern expression on his face. “Where’re your manners, Number One?” he asked, putting on his classic Reginald Hargreeves voice, and crossed his arms over his chest. Luther actually chuckled, though he brought a hand to his throat and winced slightly as he did so. “I will not tolerate discourtesy and insubordination in this household!”

“Sorry, Dad,” Luther still struggled at speaking ill of their father, but he tried to awkwardly play along. “Guess I’ll just go back to the - heh! moonhh’KSCHH!hh’KNGT! Moon.” Klaus dramatically gasped again and brought a hand to his mouth, still playing the character.

“Disgusting! How dare you disrespect me so. Thirty more years on the moon for y…hih! You - ah fuck-nxgtshiew! H’DtZshiew!” Luther chuckled behind the hand still raised to his own face.

“Blessyou-hh’nnXGT! Heh-NXTCH!” Now Klaus was laughing, too.

“Bless you!” Klaus giggled and got back into character. “Number One, are you ill? You know that’s only allowed on Tuesdays-”

“Hah-GNNXT-uhh!” Luther winced after that one and brought his hand down from his nose to clutch his throat instead. Klaus winced too and finally broke character.

“God, that even sounded painful. Why do you do that?”

“Don’t bring that up,” Ben said behind him. Klaus ignored him. He was focused instead on the way Luther tensed physically, clearly faking a chuckle to cover it up. Klaus may be a bit delirious from the fever, but he was no dummy. He could read Luther’s body language like a book. Granted, it was pretty impossible not to notice those huge shoulders hunching in on themselves.

“What, sneeze?” Luther shrugged, though it was a smaller movement than normal. Klaus knew he was playing dumb. “I don’t know, cause I have to. Why do you?”

“Cause it turns me on,” Klaus joked. “No, dummy, I mean why do you hold them in like that?” Klaus raised a brow as Luther crossed his arms over his chest. “I mean I do it too sometimes, I know. I think everyone does. But with you, it’s like… kinda intense.”

“Uh,” Luther cleared his throat and rubbed at it a bit with the hand he still has held there. “I dunno, force of habit?” Klaus didn’t get it. Why did Luther look so uncomfortable about this? It was just sneezing. If anyone should feel embarrassed by it, it was him, given how often he found himself having his ridiculous fits in public. Klaus tried to remember the last time he’d seen Luther sneeze before the almost-apocalypse. They must have been eighteen? He couldn’t remember a specific sound, but he didn’t remember it being too out-of-the-ordinary. And this kind of was.

“I don’t remember you sneezing like that before… oh.” Klaus cursed himself mentally. How could he have not made the connection sooner? The last time they’d seen each other before the apocalypse, his brother didn’t have ape DNA running through his bloodstream. Of course it had to do with his body. Of course he would try to attract as little attention to himself as possible.

“Well I’m louder than I used to be. Before ‘oh.’” Klaus felt like slapping himself in the face; he’d just accused Luther of trying to give him a heart attack when he was already self-conscious about his sneezes, and now he’d casually brought up the fact that he’d been permanently mutilated against his will in casual conversation, without even realizing it. How many times could he put his foot in his mouth in one night?

“I’m sorry I brought it up,” he said softly. He knew his humor often came across as dismissive or insensitive.

“It’s okay,” Luther grumbled. Klaus watched as he continued to rub at his throat.

“Still bothering you?” Luther just nodded and winced slightly. A crooked smile crossed Klaus’ face.

“Hey, I know what’ll help. And god forbid, it might make you smile!” He crossed over to the fridge and pulled out the pint of ice cream he’d begged Diego to buy earlier. Luther chuckled and rolled his eyes, though it did make him smile (just a little).

“Klaus, it’s three am.”

“So what? You’re already up!” He waved the container in Luther’s face. “Come oooon, Luther, live a little! Can’t you already feel it caressing that sore, achy throat?”

Luther sighed, giving in. “Get us some spoons.”

Klaus did as he was told and then took the seat right next to Luther. They dug in. It was almost silent for the next few minutes, the only sound being occasional sneezes from the both of them and some coughing from Luther. His coughs dwindled down a little bit as the ice cream soothed his sore throat.

The two were in the middle of laughing about some mission they went on years ago when things took a turn for the worse.

“What the hell are you two doing up?” Diego’s gruff voice boomed from behind them.

The two turned around and saw a very angry looking Diego. Klaus made a move to hide the ice cream—Diego wouldn’t be happy that they were shoveling it into their mouths at 3:30 in the morning.

Klaus saw Luther’s frozen expression and decided to take the lead. “We’re just uh, having a midnight snack, Diego!”

“It’s three thirty in the morning. You two are sick as hell, you should be in bed!”

“I’m sorry, we j-“

Diego boomed, “Can it, Klaus. I’m taking you up to your room, and you, Luther, I’ll deal with you tomorrow but for right now get your sick ass back up to your room.”

Normally Luther would try to fight Diego when he tried to take the lead like this, but Luther didn’t have the energy to do so and his bed sounded like a very comforting place right now. Without so much as a “goodnight,” Luther went up to his room.

“Hhiinxgtsh! HieNXGTchieh! Hihhhishiew-eshiew!”

“Klaus…” Diego frowned. His brother looked so much sicker than he had before. “I need to take your temperature before we go upstairs.”

Klaus said, “No need, mon frère, I took it a few minutes ago. It’s sitting at 100 even, so let’s just skidaddle on upstairs!”

Klaus couldn’t help but lie. Diego seemed so stressed out and he was already pissed at Luther for some reason, he didn’t need him to get even more worked up over his temperature. In fact, he just wanted him to leave him alone. So he let him tuck him in, hoping that would appease him.

“I’m gonna go grab the thermometer from downstairs.”

“You should really get some rest,” Ben suggested once Diego had gone. He was sat down on the edge of the bed, hand hovering over Klaus’ blanketed form and rubbing circles on his back. Klaus didn’t respond, just pulled the covers over his face. He was shivering now (though he still did not regret the ice cream, that shit was delicious). And when Diego came in to take his temperature, he clutched the blankets tightly around his face and fake snored – which wasn’t that difficult given the congestion. He heard Diego grunt and place the thermometer down on his desk before the door shut.


	6. chapter 6

Apparently, being bone-tired and wrapped in a cozy blanket isn’t very conducive to staying up. When Klaus next opened his eyes, he was greeted with the sight of Ben staring down at him, wide-eyed and worried.

“Jesus, Ben!” he hissed, instantly clutching at his throat as soon as the words left his throat. When did it start feeling sore? He was starting to feel a bit of pressure in his head, too. “You’re worse than the dead babies!”

“You saw dead babies again?” Klaus shut his eyes tight and nodded. Ben’s face fell; Klaus tended to see dead babies a lot when he was sick. They’d always assumed it was because babies so often died of infection, and they felt some sort of connection to him when he had a fever. Klaus sniffled.

“Take your temperature,” Ben said, reaching for the thermometer on the table. His hand went phased through it.

“It’s so far away,” Klaus whined, stretching out his arm but not quite reaching it. “You do it.”

“It’ll make you even more exhausted!”

“Then b- hihh’szhiuu! be quick!”

Before Ben could protest, Klaus was bringing his fists together. Ben quickly grabbed the thermometer and put it in Klaus’ mouth, just before he flickered. Klaus immediately released him. He coughed a bit over the thermometer, dry, hoarse coughs that tore at his throat. After it beeped, Klaus blinked down at the screen, unable to focus his eyes on the tiny numbers.

“103.9! That’s dangerously high, Klaus, no wonder about the babies!”

A knock at the door sent Klaus scrambling to hide the thermometer. He shoved it into the pocket of the sweatpants Diego had lent him and sat up in bed, wincing just a little at the pain that coursed through his back as he did so.

“Who is it?” he rasped.

“Vanya.” That was a relief.

“Come in.” Vanya shuffled into the room with a glass of water. She had her violin case in the other hand.

“Hey, how you feeling?” Klaus shrugged.

“Been better, been worse.”

“I thought you were gonna sleep in. I was just about to leave for rehearsal, but then I heard you coughing. Drink this.” She handed him the glass and he gladly downed it. “Allison made lunch. You should eat something.”

“More soup?”

“Yeah. Come on.” Klaus wasn’t really in the mood for more soup; in fact, he didn’t have much of an appetite at all, which was really saying something about how sick he was. Still, he willingly followed his sister of the room, pausing outside Luther’s door when she collected him too.

“I don’t care!” Klaus raised his brows and put his ear to the door; Vanya rarely used that tone with her siblings. “Well, you haven’t eaten a solid meal in three days. So get your ass up.”

When Luther finally appeared in the doorway, he was wearing yet another sweatshirt and had his arms crossed over his chest, a sour expression on his face. And his hair was messed up. Yeah, he’d just woken up, too.

“Hey, sick buddy,” Klaus said with a sniffly, dopey little grin as they followed their sister down the staircase. “Hhh’etshu! Inxt-gntchu!” He tapped on his brother’s shoulder from behind.

“hiklaus.” Oof. Luther’s voice was completely shot. Klaus winced; he wondered if that was going to happen to him, too.

“Look who’s finally up!” The three of them turned their heads to see Diego standing in the doorway to the kitchen, arms crossed. “I guess noon is the new morning.”

“Diego, they’re sick,” Vanya reminded as she sat her sick brothers down at opposite ends of the table.

“They seemed to forget all about that last night.” Diego sat down directly across from Luther at the table. He looked him dead in the eyes. Luther looked down at his lap and shrunk in on himself further. Klaus picked up on his uneasiness and responded by crawling across the seats between them and sitting down next to him instead.

“Get away from him, Klaus, that’s how you got sick in the first place.” Just then, Allison entered with two steaming bowls of soup, placing them in front of her sick brothers.

“He’s already sick. Diego, leave him be.”

“I care about him, sue me! Someone’s got to look out for him.” He glared at Luther again. “Right, Number One?” Of course, Luther’s body chose that exact moment to betray him.

“hhr’KSCH! Heh-KSCHIEW! Ow.” They came on so suddenly that he barely had time to react, turning away from Klaus, and he only managed to bring his arm halfway up to his face, clutching his throat afterwards. Vanya flinched in response; Diego’s lip turned up in disgust. Neither of them had seen Luther sneeze freely this entire time, and they hadn’t been prepared.

“Bless you!”

“Cover your damn mouth,” Diego said with a sneer, taking the napkin from his placemat and throwing it with perfect accuracy to land on Luther’s chest. “And you wonder how you Klaus got sick.”

“fuckoff.” Luther swiped at his nose with the napkin. Klaus just rolled his eyes.

“He didn’t mean to. God, Diego, stop being such a dick!” He winced slightly at the pain that coursed through his own throat after raising his voice.

“I’m not being a dick, I’m just looking out for you, Klaus. Someone has to. Ape Boy over here clearly isn’t cut out for the job.”

Vanya heaved a sigh and checked her watch. She was pretty late, anyway, and she really didn’t want to watch Luther and Diego go at it. Which, by the look of things, was the inevitable outcome of this conversation.

“Uh, listen, guys, I gotta run. We can talk about this later, okay?” And with that, she was out the door, conveniently avoiding the rising conflict before it got ugly.

“Diego, what the hell are you talking about?” Allison asked, taking the chair across from Klaus.

“You tell her.” Diego pointed his finger directly at Luther. Klaus jumped in, instead.

“Okay, so last night I couldn’t sleep and-”

“I want him to say it,” Diego cut him off, pointing directly at Luther. Luther cleared his throat, but to no avail.

“I…” he rasped. “Last night we-” he cut himself off with a wince, shaking his head.

“Oh, so now you conveniently can’t talk?”

“Diego, leave them be,” Allison chastised. She looked down at the two bowls of soup, still completely untouched. “Please try to eat your soup.”

“mnothungry,” Luther mumbled, voice practically nonexistent.

“And why is that?” Diego sat down across from him at the table. “Maybe it’s all the ice cream you guys ate at three in the fucking morning!”

“Wait, what?” Allison furrowed her brows in confusion at Luther; he was never one to stay up late. “You were up at three am?”

Klaus cut in, “Yes we were because neither of us could sleep! Luther came downstairs and then I joined him in the kitchen and I got out the ice cream and-“

“You shouldn’t be throwing off your sleeping or eating schedule when you’re both this sick! Why would you eat ice cream at three in the morning, Klaus?” Allison’s tone became more serious.

“Our throats hurt so I thought it would be a good idea!”

Allison scoffed, “Oh, did you now?”

“Allison get off his back! Luther was the one who woke him up in the first place, right Klaus?”

“No, I was alr-“

“Klaus was the one who got out the ice cream instead of going back to bed like they should’ve!”

Diego snapped, “Well he was already up thanks to Luther and I doubt he could’ve fallen back asleep with Luther’s monstrous coughs and sneezes!”

“This is enough!” Five’s authoritative yet squeaky voice shouted. “Look at them!”

Both of the ill boys had tears streaming down their faces. Only Allison’s expression softened. Five swore he saw Diego’s expression flicker, but it remained one of anger. Allison walked over to Klaus and wrapped him in a hug from behind. She kissed him on the forehead and apologized.

“Diego? Where’s Luther’s hug and kiss?” Klaus joked maybe a tad too soon.

Diego shook his head, “I’m not going near him. I’m not getting sick. Speaking of, Klaus I have to take your temperature again.”

Klaus gave an exaggerated groan and a wet sniffle. “I swear this is the most I’ve ever had the same thing in my mouth! Well–except for-”

“Can it,” Five said.

Diego took Klaus’ temperature. There was a strong look of concern painted over his face when he read the results.

“104.6, Klaus. That’s not good. We’ve gotta get you in an ice bath and get you some more fever reducers. Damnit.” Diego started pacing around the room.

Allison took the thermometer out of his hands, rinsed it off in the sink, and took Luther’s temperature.

“99.4, that’s a lot better than what you’ve been dealing with. You don’t need an ice pack but I’m getting you some more fever reducers and a cold washcloth,” she said.

Diego was still pacing around the room. Five rolled his eyes, blinked out, blinked back in with a needle, and presented it to Diego, prompting him to pass out.

“Five, what the hell?” Allison shouted.

“He’s too panicked right now about Klaus. He’ll wake up and he’ll be more relaxed. Allison, I’ll take care of Luther, you get Klaus in the ice bath,” Five said.

Klaus asked, “Are…are we just supposed to leave Diego there on the ground?”

Five shrugged. The only other person capable of carrying Diego was Luther, and Luther definitely didn’t have the energy to do so right now. So they left him there.

The tallest and the smallest made their way up to Number One’s bedroom, Five had the bottle of fever reducers in hand along with a plus size box of tissues. Luther was blowing his nose almost nonstop now and his coughs were so productive that…well, you can imagine.

Five stayed with Luther until his fever finally broke, which was around forty-five minutes after another round of fever reducers and several wet washcloths. Five was able to get Luther a lot of tea with honey and cough drops to help his throat. He even took a look at it, and he was shocked at how raw and red it was. Maybe they needed to take Luther to a doctor. Five quickly dismissed that thought as Luther’s fever broke.

Back in the bathroom, Klaus was wearing a long pink robe and sitting on the counter while Allison drew the bath. The thing about Klaus was that he was so skinny and bony that he generally ran cold. And Klaus hated the cold. He hated being chilly, even though his normal clothes did little to warm him, and he was not happy about the idea of taking a cold bath.

The thing that Klaus loved about taking baths was how relaxing and comforting they were. There was absolutely nothing comforting to him about freezing cold water. But, he knew that he was burning up and he was hoping for some relief. Fevers always made him feel like the ghosts were louder and more aggressive and he had a lot less patience for them.

“Bath’s ready. Strip down to your boxers and get in,” Allison said.

“Wait are you staying here?” Klaus asked. Allison nodded. “Oh. Why?”

Allison said, “Someone has to keep an eye on you.”

“Oh.”

Klaus just sat there for a moment.

“Klaus, get in the bath,” Allison ordered.

“Oh, oh, right, right the bath, okay.” Still, he didn’t move.

Allison took a step closer to her brother. He was so completely dazed, Allison wondered if he could move even if he wanted to. “Klaus?”

“Yeah?”

“Are you feeling alright?”

“Uhhhhh….no? No.” He was more sure with the second answer. He was looking at her but he wasn’t really looking at her. He was looking in her general direction but his eyes were somewhere else. “Why?”

“You look like you’re gonna - Klaus!” Allison rushed to hold out her arms underneath Klaus’, just before his eyes rolled back in his head. His body rocked forward into her, and she nearly fell down underneath him. Skinny as he was, it was still pretty difficult to support his 6’0” frame. His skin burned against her, and she felt herself starting to sweat underneath him. After some awkward stumbling around the bathroom, she finally managed to set him down to sit on the edge of the tub.

“Klaus! Klaus, wake up!” She slapped his face a few times. It wasn’t working. “Five!” The smallest Hargreeves poofed into the bathroom, jaw going slack when he saw Klaus.

“Get him into the tub!”

Allison looked into the freezing cold tub. Klaus wouldn’t like it, but it might be the only way to get him to wake up right now. And besides, she needed to get his fever down ASAP.

“Okay. Grab his feet.” With Five’s help, Allison lowered Klaus into the tub. She hurriedly put her hand beneath his neck to support his head.

Klaus immediately started shivering when his skin hit the water, whole body shuddering wildly. After a few seconds, he awoke with a gasp, green eyes shooting wide open. He looked around disorientedly for a few times, slashing around in a panic in the bathtub.

“Stop, leave me alone!” he cried. Tears were brimming his eyes. His focus was directly in front of him, not on Allison or Five. He put his face in his hands. “Go away go away go away!”

“Klaus!” Allison said sternly, shaking his shoulders in an attempt to snap him back to reality. He finally lifted his head up and looked at her. “It’s me, Allison. You have a fever, you just passed out.”

Klaus blinked around at his surroundings as things finally started to come into focus. After a few moments, he buried his face in his arms again.

“I’m so c-cold,” he said weakly, eyes fluttering shut as another huge shiver wracked his body, followed by a shivery sob. “I don’t want this.” He tried to climb out of the tub, but Allison held him down. He was way too weak to break free of her grasp.

“I know, Klaus,” Allison said softly. “But you need to bring your fever down, okay?”

He shook his head sternly, wet curls flopping wildly around his head, even though he didn’t put up a fight anymore as she settled him back down into the water. “I want Dave.”

Allison still held him down in the water, but her grip softened. She brought a hand up to Klaus’ fevered cheek.

“I know, honey.” Klaus just shook his head and continued to shudder and sob. Allison could feel her hand growing damp against his cheek.

“Think you can handle him?” Five asked softly after a few seconds of this. Allison turned back to look at him. She was about to insist that he help her lift Klaus out of the tub, but then she saw the way he stood there, tapping his foot nervously with his arms crossed over his chest. He seemed antsy for some reason, like he was itching to get out of there. It must be important.

“Yeah, you can go.” Five nodded and immediately poofed away. Allison turned around and smiled softly down at her sick brother, who was now sitting upright in the tub on his own, apparently becoming more lucid by moment.

“Allison,” he said weakly. “I’m so sorry.”

“Shh, it’s okay. Hold still.” She dipped a plastic cup in the water and poured its contents down Klaus’ forehead. He shivered and sputtered, coughing up a little bit that got in his mouth, which resulted in more hacking from his torn up lungs. Klaus let out a loud sob and Allison’s heart broke. “Hey, you’re alright. You’re okay, I promise. I’m here, okay?”

Klaus sniffled, “Yeah.”

Every move he made caused him to shiver even more.

“Honey, let me pour some more water on your head,” Allison said. She had only been able to do about two cup-fulls before Klaus had choked on the water. Klaus braced himself and Allison filled up the cup. She gently poured the water over his head, putting her hand on his arm as he shuddered into it. “Lean back, I want some on your forehead.” Klaus did as he was told. She did about two more cup-fulls successfully.

She was in the middle of her third when Klaus interrupted her, “Stop stop stop. HahhhhIgotwaterinmynosehehh-ohgod. Fuck it burns I-hhh… hih'DZTshiew! Nxgtshh-etshiuu!” He pitched forward with the uncovered sneezes, the spray hitting his bare thighs. “Ihhh….Hihh?…Heh-xntshieu! Fuck-kst'chjuu! Ehh’nXGTzhiuu! Ugh!”

“Jesus Christ, Klaus, bless you!”

Klaus sniffled wetly. He groaned, “Fuck, I’m so stuffed up.”

Allison noticed his sopping wet hands–from the bathwater and the sneezing fit–and she grabbed a wad of toilet paper. “Here.” She held it up to Klaus’ face. “Blow.”

“No, no, Allison I can’t,” Klaus looked up at her. “I-it’s disgusting!”

“Klaus, I’m a mom. Do you know how many times I’ve helped Claire blow her nose?” She argued.

Klaus sighed. He gave in, “Okay okay okay, but we’re never telling anyone about it at all ever, okay?”

His rounded consonants left Allison chuckling. Allison moved the toilet paper back up to Klaus’ nose and held it up firmly.

“Blow,” Allison said when she was ready. Klaus did as he was told, his cheeks slightly pink–not from the fever this time. After the wad of toilet paper was too soaked to be used further, Allison grabbed another one. “Come on, again.”

This time, Klaus obeyed without resisting. This one cleared him out a lot better than the first, but Allison still had to get a third bit and wipe underneath his nose. Allison smiled, “There you go, good as new.”

“Thanks. Like I said…please don’t tell anyone about this,” Klaus pleaded.

“I won’t tell a single soul.”

Sighing contently, Klaus leaned back. He was thrown off by the cold water splashing back at him.

“Can I please get out?” He cried.

Allison nodded. He had been in the tub for about fifteen minutes, and she was worried about what would happen if he stayed in any longer. She helped lift him up to a standing position and he stepped out. Allison wrapped a towel around him and held her arm around him protectively.

“Hhhang on ehhh! I’m gonna sneeze!” He reached out and grabbed her arm blindly, and Allison tightened her group around his back. “Inxghtshiew! NGXT’uh-isshiew! Wait. There might be another one. Hihh….nope. Damnit.”

“Bless you, you alright?” Allison spoke softly.

Klaus nodded. “Can you help me back to bed? I’m exhausted and I…I don’t want to pass out on you again.”

The two of them took a long trip back to Klaus’ room. Allison held her eyes shut as Klaus got changed into some dry clothes, and then Allison helped him into bed. She took his temperature again, it dropped to 100.4 which was a lot better than what it had been earlier. It wasn’t the best, but it was better than nothing.

After that Allison pulled Klaus’ blankets up to his chin and tousled his hair.

Allison turned around and picked a few things up, threw the used tissues in the trash, and dimmed the lights. By the time she turned around Klaus was fast asleep.

This put Allison at peace for a moment. There was no chaos going on and she could finally relax without having to worry about her brother dying on her.

And then Five blinked in.

“Allison! Oh, thank god you’re here. Luther’s coughing really hard and I think he’s going to throw up but I can’t be in there because I-I just can’t! You have to go in there please!” Five rambled.

Allison nodded and instructed Five to stay with Klaus for the time being. Five still didn’t look like he was too happy with having to stay with another one of his germy siblings, but hey, this was better than vomit.

When Allison walked into Luther’s room he was hunched over the tiny garbage bin he always kept by his desk. He was coughing so hard his face was red, and with one final heave, something finally came up. Allison was shocked at how he was able to come up with anything seeing as he hadn’t eaten anything in almost three days, but he had been drinking a lot of liquids.

Allison slid onto Luther’s bed and started rubbing his back. He jumped a little, not having noticed Allison’s entrance. The gasp he let out only further irritated his throat and he started choking up more liquid. Allison continued working small circles onto Luther’s sweaty back, hoping that would help calm him down a bit.

Luther was coughing so hard there was thick mucus dripping out of his nose into the bucket. It came to the point where Allison couldn’t tell if it was mucus or vomit.

Luther finally stopped puking. He hid his face from Allison who then grabbed some tissues off of his bedside table and offered them.

Luther wiped his nose and then blew it.

“Sorry…about that,” Luther spoke shyly. His voice was somehow even more scratchy than it had been earlier. Allison heaved a sigh and turned around for a second to collect herself. She hated seeing him like this.

“Don’t be sorry, you couldn’t help it. Better out than in, right?” She turned back around and was greeted with the sight of Luther not only out of bed, but stumbling towards the door, bile-filed bucket in hand. She could see his knees shaking; yup, he’d definitely just dehydrated himself.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, where do you think you’re going? Put that down!” She rushed over and grabbed the bucket from him, quickly setting it down in its proper place next to his desk, before ushering him back to bed. “Just let me handle it, okay?” she asked, tone a bit more exacerbated than she’d intended, judging by the way Luther flinched. She took a deep breath before continuing. “You really need to lie down, you’re probably low on electrolytes. I am not about to have another one of my siblings pass out on me today.”

“Klaus passed out?” Luther looked so wounded it broke Allison’s heart. She bit down on her lip, regretting having said anything, and nodded reluctantly.

“He’s okay now,” she insisted, reaching out a hand to squeeze Luther’s shoulder.

“Diego was right. I-it’s my fault he’s so sick.” Allison could kill Diego. She shook her head and pushed his hair back in place from where it was stuck to his forehead with sweat.

“Hey, hey, it’s not your fault, okay? It could have been any one of us. You know he’s just… a bit protective of Klaus. We all are.” Luther nodded, though his eyes were scrunched up tight. Allison couldn’t tell if it was physical pain, embarrassment, guilt, or some terrible mix of the three. She cupped his cheek in her hand. It was hot and flushed, but she attributed it the vomiting – plus the tears that were starting to stream down his face for the second time that day. Yup, Diego was going to get an earful from her later. But for now, she had to push her anger down and focus on making her brother feel better.

“You’re okay, Luther. We love you,” she said softly, wiping the tears off her face with her thumb, trying not to visibly wince at the smell of bile that still lingered on his breath. She plucked a few tissues from the box and went to wipe his face for real, which he prevented by suddenly bringing both of his gloved hands up to cover his face. She tried to pry his hands apart, but he wouldn’t budge.

“Allison I have to-”

“Luther, stop it.” He shook his head. “Just let me - oh.” Seeing Luther’s chest expand, Allison released his hands. He immediately steepled them over his nose.

“hnnG’TCHU! Hih-INGXTtchiew!”

“Bless you!”

“Ohgod-hh’GNXTchiehh! Itgotupmynose-ih’GNXT!”

“Well then let it out, Lu.”

“I’m tryinhh-nnG’NNKT!-uhh.” He pressed his fingertips down tighter on his nose.

“You’re gonna make it worse!” Allison grabbed Luther’s hands again, only this time she successfully pulled them away from his face. The fact that her normally super-strong brother didn’t have the energy to fight back really spoke volumes for how shitty he must be feeling.

“Allison, s-stop, I still have to… hih!” realizing there was no escape, Luther turned his face down onto his pillow. “Hhh’KSCHhh’KSCHHT! Ohgoditburns — Hh’KschOO! Hih-KSCHEHH!”

As soon as the last sneeze was out, Luther broke into a harsh bout of coughing. Allison instinctively grabbed the garbage bin again, just in case. Thankfully, Luther’s breathing evened out before he could trigger his gag reflex this time.

Allison noted the reappearance of the thick fluid from earlier that she’d seen dripping out of his nose. Yup, that was definitely vomit. In a repeat of earlier events, she held a tissue up to her brother’s nose and pinched. To her surprise, Luther didn’t even wait for her command before he blew his nose willingly into the tissue. He must really be miserable.


	7. chapter 7

Allison made him drink three glasses of water before she put him back to bed, pulling the blankets back up to his chin. He was shaking a bit, and his forehead was a little bit damp, but she chalked it up to dehydration. She left the now-empty garbage bin by his side, just to be safe.

She frowned at the way Luther kept clutching at his throat and wincing, even as he drifted off to sleep. She considered giving him some more throat spray or some more cough syrup, but she decided against it. Gag reflex factor ran way too high with those, and she’d rather have him suffer through a sore throat than risk the chance of him losing any more of his body’s water content.

Then Allison thought to take his temperature again. She went to go find a thermometer. As she walked past Klaus’ room she heard Five talking to Klaus and Klaus responding with a few harsh sneezes. Allison chuckled to herself as she heard Klaus scold Five for not blessing him. So much for him getting some sleep.

Allison found a thermometer in the kitchen and then brought it back up to Luther’s room. He was fast asleep on his bed, but Allison decided she still needed to know his temperature. She slipped the thermometer through his parted lips, they were dry and cracked. She made a mental note to pick up some chapstick—Klaus’ lips had been chapped as well.

Luther’s temperature read back as 104.3 and Allison nearly lost her shit. She scrambled to the kitchen, remembering that that was where they left Diego. He wasn’t there. Allison frantically ran about the house shouting for him. As she strode past the front door she slammed into Vanya who was just returning from rehearsal.

“Oh my god Vanya Luther’s temperature is so high it’s almost the same as Klaus’ when he passed out and I don’t know what to do I can’t find Diego and Five is watching over Klaus and-“

“What the hell? Klaus passed out?”

Allison nodded, not realizing how much Vanya had missed.

“That’s it I’m canceling my lessons for today.” Vanya whipped her phone out and started sending messages as Allison lead her upstairs to Luther’s room. “How is Klaus doing? How long has it been since he passed out? Is he okay?”

“Five is in there with him, Vanya,” Allison said. She felt bad but her concern was really focused on Luther for the time being.

The two girls entered Luther’s room. Allison has helped prop him up so in case he did start vomiting again he at least wouldn’t choke on it. He was so flushed. As soon as they entered, Vanya immediately announced that she was going to get some cold compresses and as many fans as she could find to try and lower Luther’s temperature.

It was now that Allison realized how different this was to Klaus having a high temperature. Klaus was long but he was skinny as all hell and therefore it was easy to manipulate his weak or limp body. Luther however, was quite a lot bigger than Klaus in both respects. It would take all of the Hargreeves siblings to carry Luther to the bath to cool him off.

When Vanya returned with the supplies, they set Luther up as best as they could.

“Alright I think that’s the best we can do for now. We should probably leave him to get some rest,” Vanya said.

Allison hesitated. “Uh, I think I’m gonna say with him for a bit. Let me know if you need me though, okay?”

Vanya nodded and then left without another word. She walked down the hallway to Klaus’ bedroom and knocked on his door. A hoarse voice called for her to come in so she did quietly. She saw how terrible Klaus looked. His face looked...puffy, like she could see how congested he was. He was grabbing a tissue off of the bedside table as Vanya stepped farther into the room, having shut the door behind her.

“Hhietshiew! Hihhihhisshiew-hehhNXGT’uh!” Klaus smothered the messy sneezed into the tissue he had just picked up.

Vanya joked, “Wow, not even a ‘hello’?”

Her teasing caused Klaus to laugh and then clear his throat with a liquidy sniffle tacked onto the end. “Sorry,” he croaked, “hey Vanya. How was rehearsal?”

“It was okay. I was worried about you, though. How are you feeling?” She sat down on the edge of Klaus’ bed and held onto his hand.

“Been better,” Klaus said with a small sniffle, wincing slightly when it only added to the pressure in his sinuses. “But really, it’s not that bad.”

“Allison said you passed out,” Vanya said softly, squeezing Klaus’ hand. He responded with a reluctant nod and a little sigh, only to cringe and cough a second later when it irritated his throat. “Do you still feel dizzy at all?”

“No. Just really stuffed up.”

“You sound so hoarse. I’ll get you some of that throat spray."

“No, Luther said it doesn’t work, remember?” Klaus reminded her. Vanya turned her head towards the door for a split second at the mention of Luther; Klaus followed her gaze. “How is he, have you seen him?”

“He’s asleep,” Vanya said quickly, squeezing Klaus’ hand again. “His fever went down, don’t worry about him.” It technically wasn’t a lie; she just neglected to mention that it had gone back up again. She really didn’t need Klaus to be worrying about him right now, he needed to focus on himself. Thankfully, he seemed to buy it.

“Good, good. He needs his sleep… hh’Dtshiew!”

“Bless you!” An unfamiliar female voice came from the hallway. Vanya looked at Klaus in confusion, then fear. Klaus just stared at her blankly; he’d assumed it was a ghost.

“Klaus? You up?” Diego’s voice came in from the hallway. And then he was stepping into the room, followed by a woman with a low ponytail, dressed in a turtleneck.

“Hey, Diego,” Klaus rasped.

“You must be Klaus. And, um, Vanya?” the woman in the turtleneck spoke. They looked at each other and nodded tentatively. “Hi, I’m Eudora Patch. But just call me Patch”

“Hi,” Vanya said quietly, eyes darting back and forth between Diego and this ‘Patch.’

“Eudora is my friend from the police academy,” Diego explained. The woman’s face fell a bit at that description. “I asked her to help me look after you, Klaus.”

“Ha!” the woman rolled her eyes. “That’s not what happened at all.”

To Diego’s dismay, Patch explained to them exactly what had happened. When Diego woke up on the living room floor, he’d been pretty pent up about everything. He’d felt like hurting Luther and Five, an to stop himself, he’d called his “friend” Patch (though Klaus and Vanya could pick up on the sexual tension emanating off of them in waves). They had an agreement: when he got like this, he’d call her up and she’d drive him around and talk it out until he calmed down (yup, definitely just “friends”). He’d explained to her what happened, and when talking didn’t calm down his anxiety about Klaus, she’d suggested she drop by and help him take care of him. Which is exactly what they were doing.

Vanya narrowed her eyes at him, ignoring the stranger.

“So what, you don’t trust us to look after him?”

“Sorry, no. Seeing as you knocked me out earlier over a little argument, I don’t trust you to look after our incredibly fragile brother.”

“I’m not -hhh’xgchu-nxgt! fr-ackstju!- fragile.”

“Are you hearing yourself, right now?” Diego rushed over and put a hand to Klaus’ forehead. “You’re still warm -- where’s the thermometer?”

“You’re freaking out, again, Diego.” Vanya put her hand gently on Diego’s arm but he wriggled away from her grasp. “Klaus doesn’t need you panicking over him, he needs someone to keep him calm.”

“What’s her name again? Vanya? I like her--”

“Do you know how many times I’ve seen Klaus practically knocking on death’s door? You have no idea how quickly things can go to shit with him.”

“Diego, I’m fine!” Klaus whined. “Really, my fever’s gone down a lot since I passed out.”

“Since you what?” Diego’s jaw clenched.

“Diego, remember your breathing--”

“I’m gonna kill him,” he said through gritted teeth, before storming out into the hallway. “Hey, asshole! Looks like you got what you wanted, huh?” his voice carried through the hallway. He sounded scary mad. Vanya scurried off after him.

All of this action was a lot for Klaus. “Diego, don’t you dare touch him!” He whimpered and buried his head in his hands. “Ugh, why did I say anything?” he rasped. “I don’t need a murder on my hands.”

“Hey, uh. Klaus?” He looked up from his hands. Turtleneck lady--Eudora Patch, whatever the fuck her name was-- was still standing there, looking pretty damn confused. “Are you okay?”

Klaus wiped his eyes. “I’m okay, are you?”

Eudora was put off. She was used to people saying that sarcastically or defensively but Klaus seemed to be genuinely asking.

“I’m doing alright. Would you like to accompany me to find Diego?”

Klaus sniffled, “Okay, one sehhhcondhhishyiew-inxgsh’uh! Ihhnxgtchiew! Sndf, okay sorry.”

The pale boy stood up shakily and Eudora put her arm around him as she led him into the hallway. Klaus liked her. She was sweet and caring just like Diego but she knew how to calm him down and when to put him in his place. Klaus wondered why he hadn’t met her before.

They walked over to Luther’s room, following the loud sound of Diego’s voice, and they saw Luther pitched over, sneezing while Diego continued to shout at him.

“Hh’EKSHIEW! HhNXGHT-NXGHT’UH-NXGHTCHIEW!” Luther’s breath was hitching wildly. He was clearly trying to hold his sneezes back but even the stifles were loud.

Diego growled, “Oh, here we go again with the huge ass sneezes. You know, I used to think Klaus was the dramatic one maybe it’s actually you, Luther. Speaking of Klaus he’s in his room trying to get some rest because of the cold that you gave him, but I think something might be keeping him up!”

Luther cried, “Ihhh-I’m not hehhh...I’m not trying t’hahhhHHrENGTSHIEW! IHHHENGT’SHUH!” Tears were streaming down his cheeks. Whether they were from the sneezing or Diego’s tormenting, no one could tell.

“Bless you,” came a soft, hoarse voice from the hallway. “He’s not bothering me, Diego. I promise.”

“I know you’re just saying that, Klaus, he’s making a racket and-”

Eudora cut in, “And he’s sick, Diego. He’s not feeling well. Stop being a bitch and maybe give him as much care as you’re giving Klaus because he’s clearly still feeling shitty. You don’t need to be adding onto that as much as you are right now. How would you feel if someone was treating Klaus like this right now?” Diego didn’t say a word. “That’s what I thought. Luther, how are you feeling, sweetie?”

Luther shrugged. Tears were still falling down his face, meaning that they weren’t just from the sneezes. Allison stroked his back softly and tried to calm him down.

“Can everyone give me and Luther a few minutes alone?” Allison asked. Everyone filed out quickly, Eudora still having her arm wrapped around Klaus as Diego joined to do the same on his other side. “You alright, Luther?”

“I didn’t mean to get Klaus sick, I swear,” Luther sobbed. “I-I didn’t mean to let Ben die either it’s just-everything is my fault and-and I don’t know how to fix it.”

Luther was getting himself so worked up Allison was afraid he would get sick again. She tried explaining that it wasn’t Luther’s fault that Ben died and Ben didn’t blame him for it and that it wasn’t Luther’s fault that Klaus got sick and Klaus knew that. Unfortunately, logic wasn’t really appealing to Luther in his current state. She tried running her hands through his hair and wrapping her arms around him--nothing worked. He was still bawling in her arms.

Then, Allison got an idea.

“Luther, look at me,” She said, tilting his head up. She looked him in the eyes. “I heard a rumor, that you felt better.”

Luther’s eyes lit up blue as she relayed the command. His sobs started to fade away over the course of a few minutes, and Luther fell asleep in her arms.

Allison knew that her statement was vague but she hoped that it would at least do something to help Luther feel more like himself again.

To her delight, it actually seemed to work. Allison tracked his fever every fifteen minutes, watching it descend rapidly each time until it had finally reached a manageable 100.1°.

Klaus, on the other hand, wasn’t doing so well. In that time, his fever had climbed its way back up to 101.8°, and the fear of seeing dead babies kept from falling asleep again.

Diego stayed with him, checking his fever the same way (he’d bought another thermometer when he was out with Patch), and medicated him appropriately. Eudora kept him from panicking, assuring him repeatedly that his brother was safe.

She kept Klaus entertained with a constant influx of stories about all the times Diego has fucked up at the police academy. Diego remained tight-lipped and closed off throughout all of it; they could all tell there was some weird tension between them. But Klaus and Vanya both still laughed at the stories (although Klaus wouldn’t let himself laugh too hard, his throat hurt too much). They were both really starting to like Eudora.

With Luther’s fever under control, Allison spent about an hour alone with Klaus, while the others were downstairs cooking dinner. Klaus seemed to be pretty coherent and not in any immediate danger. They engaged in lighthearted chatter while she painted his nails, redoing his right hand three times when he sneezed and ruined the job. Allison was exhausted from taking care of her brothers all day. She’d handled it alone when Klaus passed out and when Luther puked his guts out, and she’d had to tend to two high fevers within hours of each other. This quiet moment was very welcome.

That was, until Klaus started whining. About his hair, of all things.

“Please, Allison.” His voice was raspy and breaking. “I can feel my curls getting all sticky and gross!”

“It’s just gonna get more frizzy, Klaus. Believe me, I would know.” She gestured at her own perfect curls.

“Please just let me wash my hair.”

“No one’s gonna see it, Klaus--”

“Dave might see it!” He pushed himself up on his elbows. “Please, I’ll be really quick-”

“No!”

Unfortunately for Allison, using her power was like a drug. If she used it once, she was bound to use it again soon. It was a hard cycle to kick.

“Please?” He pouted. Allison bit down on her lip to keep from yelling; he was really trying her patience.

“Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleeeeeeeeease-”

“I heard a rumor,” Allison finally broke, holding Klaus’ face in her hands so he was looking at her., “that you can’t stop sneezing.” Klaus’ eyes flashed bright blue for a second. And then immediately, his breath hitched.

“Hh - Allison, get off me, I have to snehhh-ih? Hih-etshieww! Hahhnxgtsjuu! Heh-itschiuu!” Allison grinned; it was better than him whining. “Ugh, sorry, it came on so -hih!- suddenly… Heh! Oh fuck- hhHtdSZHiehh! ngk’tshiiu-heh! hhietshieww!” His breath was hitching wildly as he tried desperately not to sneeze. “Oh fuck, I can’t stohhekshieww! exNGTuhh! Ngxt! ehhhTD’shuu! Xngt-eshuu! Hiehh’etshuu! Ugh.”

Allison giggled. “I heard a rumor that you stopped sneezing.”

Her smile faded as she watched Klaus continue to sneeze, even after his eyes flashed blue a second time. He gasped for air in between. Eventually, it died down, but as the space between the sneezes became greater, the wheeze in his breath became more pronounced.

“ohgodicantbreathe-HxtSHiuu! Allison,” he wheezed, voice a strangled whisper. “Can you get my inhaler?”

Allison searched his drawers in a panic but found nothing. Where the hell was it? The last time she’d seen him use it, it was in the living room.

Allison ran to the door and called down the stairs. “Diego! Get Klaus’ inhaler, quick!”

Diego was rushing upstairs within seconds, dressed in a frilly pink apron, with the inhaler in hand.

“Oh god, Klaus!” He rushed over and held the inhaler to Klaus’ mouth. “Breathe in-”

Klaus slapped his hand away. “I can - ihh…. ihhhetshiew! I can do it myself,” he gasped out, before taking a puff. Allison and Diego watched with bated breath as Klaus’ breathing started to even out. Allison didn’t realize she’d been holding her own breath until she heard Klaus let out a sigh of relief moments after taking a second puff.

“What the hell happened?” Diego had his arms crossed over his chest. He looked at Allison accusingly.

“I didn’t - he just started sneezing like crazy, and then that happened.” Her hands were in tight fists at her sides, the only sign of her guilt. She was an actress, after all. “I didn’t know-”

“Didn’t know what, that he’d had asthma all our fucking lives?” Diego hissed. “The second you heard his breathing change you should’ve called for me.”

“I’m sorry,” Allison shook her head. “I didn’t mean to-”

“Didn’t mean to what?” Diego spat back at her, coming up way too close for her taste. She backed away.

“Diego!” They whipped their heads to the door. Eudora stood in the doorway dressed in an identical apron to Diego’s, arms crossed and eyebrows raised to the man in question. “What did I tell you?”

She nodded her head towards Klaus, who was sitting up in bed with his fingers pressed to his temples, face scrunched up in pain.

Immediately, Diego shrunk back, shoulders hunching slightly.

“I’m sorry,” he said through gritted teeth.

“Come on, celery still needs chopping. See you two soon!” Diego followed her out of the room. Allison turned back to Klaus and gently put his hands down at his side. She wiped his tears with the back of her hand and stroked his cheek.

“I’m so sorry, Klaus.”

“For what? It’s not your fault I’m sick.” Of course, he didn’t remember. But Allison had still felt the need to say it.

“No, Klaus, it is my fault. I-” she looked at the door, double checking that they were alone. “You’re gonna hate me.” Klaus quirked a brow.

“What do you mean? I could never hate you, Ally.”

“Klaus, I-” she lowered her voice and looked at the floor. “I rumored you to have that sneezing fit.”

“What?” Klaus went silent, dropping his gaze to his hands on his lap. He picked at his fingernails. Finally, he looked back up at her after a moment, with a raised brow. “Why, uh… why did you do that?”

Allison gulped. “You kept going on about your hair,” she explained, still unable to meet his eyes. “And I knew it would make you stop.”

“Oh.” He dropped his gaze towards his lap again, shoulders hunching. “That’s-”

“I didn’t think this would happen, I thought it would just be a few sneezes, I totally forgot about your asthma,” Allison explained, cutting him off. Klaus nodded but didn’t look up. “It was stupid and careless, and I should have stopped it way sooner than I did. I’m so sorry, Klaus.”

“It’s okay, I forgive you,” Klaus said softly, finally looking up at her again. The hurt in his eyes was obvious, though he tried to smile through it. He wasn’t so great at masking his emotions when he was sick. It just made Allison feel worse. “I know I can be a lot. I’d probably want to shut me up, too.”

“Klaus, that’s not - I just gave you a fucking asthma attack-”

“Which you didn’t know was going to happen,” Klaus smiled sadly. “I know you’d never try to hurt me-”

“But I did!” Tears were welling up in Allison’s eyes now. “It doesn’t matter what my intention was, I hurt you!”

“Well it wasn’t my intention to ruin your whole day by being a fucking invalid,” Klaus countered. His fists were clenched at his side as hot tears slid down his cheeks. “But here I am, sick as shit, once a-fucking-gain.. I-I never wanted to be such a burden.” He shut his eyes tight, sniffling back the tears. “A-and then I had to be all whiney and dramatic… who wouldn’t want me to shut up?” tears were full-on streaming now, hands pressed tight against his face as he tried to stop himself. “I don’t even know why you’re still here. I would have left me to rot.”

Klaus’ words made Allison feel even more guilty, but she had to take a moment to process them before she said the wrong thing. She was crying even more now, seeing her brother in so much pain. But she knew her pain was nothing on how shitty she’d made him feel. She’d already apologized, and she didn’t want to make this about her apologizing, or about begging for his forgiveness. So she made comforting him her objective.

She sat down on Klaus’ bed and scooped him up in her arms, shushing and soothing him. He tensed in her arms like he wanted her to let go.

“Of course I’m still here. I could never leave you, not again, Klaus, don’t you dare say anything like that to me ever again. You hear me?” Though her words were stern and commanding, her tone was soft. “You’re not a burden, you could never be a burden.” Klaus shook his head and gave another little sob. Allison responded by petting his hair, something that always seemed to calm him down. “I don’t care what Dad told you. Or what those assholes you used to date told you. n this house, you’re loved and appreciated.”

Klaus nodded and settled into Allison’s touch more and more as his tears slowly died down. After a few moments of uninterrupted crying, he finally spoke up in a shaky voice, “You wanted to shut me up. You yourself said I was being annoying.”

“Yeah, you were!” Allison ruffled his hair. “You’re allowed to be annoying, you’re sick! And you’re my brother, it’s your job. It’s my job to tell you to shut up.” Klaus made a noise that sounded like a laugh, but it came out like more of a snort due to the crying. “The way I dealt with it was wrong, though. I just got a little frustrated, cause I’m tired -- not that that’s an excuse. But you have to know that me rumoring you was not about you. It was about me. I was being a tired, whiny little bitch.”

Klaus full-on laughed now, and even though it ended in coughing, Allison was relieved to hear it.

“You are the textbook definition of ‘little bitch,’” he teased. Allison responded by grabbing some tissues and wiping at his eyes. He snatched them away from her and rolled his eyes, sighing dramatically; that’s more like the Klaus she knew.

“I can do it myself!” He blew his nose harshly into the tissues. The crying, ironically, seemed to have helped with the congestion quite a bit. Allison made a face when Klaus blew his nose.

“Yuck.”

“Love you too, sis.” Klaus flashed her a shitty little grin, tossing the used tissues to the side.

Allison ran her hands through Klaus’ hair again. It really was nasty, all matted and sticky.

“How about I help you wash your hair after dinner, hmm?”

Klaus chuckled. “All of that, and this is the conclusion you come to?”


	8. chapter 8

Allison and Klaus sat talking for another twenty or so minutes until Vanya ran up to tell them dinner was ready. She was going to have Allison bring Klaus down, and go wake up Luther herself, but Allison insisted on checking on Luther.

When she finally got to his room at about 8pm, he was sitting up in bed wide awake, sneezing profusely into a handful of tissues he held up to his face. She’d left three boxes on his nightstand, but only one was in sight, and it was propped up on Luther’s lap. His garbage bin, presumably filled with the contents of the other two boxes (and no longer filled with vomit), was pulled up to the side of his bed.

“Hey, Allison,” he greeted, voice much clearer than the last time she’d heard him. All traces of congestion were gone. “I c-c - Heh-nGHXtcheh! Hnxgt’SHIEW!” He gave his nose long, productive blow. “I can breathe through my nose,” he finished with a dopey little smile, punctuating the announcement with a very loud stomach growl. Allison grinned.

“Come on, let’s go get you some dinner.” Allison was relieved that his appetite was back, and his body seemed to be ridding itself of the infection rapidly.

Diego kept Klaus at the opposite end of the table from Luther again, essentially splitting the dinner table up into two different conversations. He rolled his eyes when Luther took a second helping of soup but didn’t say anything (Eudora was squeezing his hand). Klaus, on the other hand, took about two spoonfuls before he said he wasn’t hungry anymore.

While everyone else was cleaning up for dinner, Luther slipped into the living room, where Klaus lay curled up on the couch, sniffling and shivering pathetically. He looked absolutely miserable.

“Hey,” Luther said softly from the doorway. 

“Mm?” Klaus barely reacted. “Oh, hi Luther,” he said lamely, voice a hoarse whisper, without even looking up at him.

Luther tentatively stepped into the room.“I’m really sorry I got you so sick.”

“S’okay,” Klaus shrugged. “I…. hh’TDShieww! Ehht’shiu! Hrrgshuehh! I’ve been worse.”

“Bless you,” Luther winced. “You look like hell.”

“I hate to break it to you, but you’re not exactly in your prime, either, champ.” Luther chuckled at that. Klaus just shivered as a chill went down his spine. “Luther, I’m so cold.”

Luther plopped down next to him on the couch, allowing Klaus to snuggle up to his side. Luther frowned, “You’re still warm. When was the last time you checked your temperature?”

Klaus rolled his eyes. “Jesus Christ, Luther I’ve had my temperature taken so many times over the past few days I don’t give a fuck about it at all anymore.”

“Alright but if you pass out again it’s gonna be on you!” Luther joked. 

“Don’t worry I don’t feel that badly. I know I still have a fever but I’m not delusional yet,” Klaus said. 

The “yet” kind of threw Luther off; it really keyed him into how shitty Klaus was still feeling and how he understood that he was still getting worse. Luther almost felt guilty that he was feeling better. His nose was runny as all hell and his throat was still sore but his fever had broken and he was starting to feel more energized. The lethargy that came with the high temperature hadn’t plagued him for a few hours now and he felt like he was thriving. 

Their short conversation was interrupted by Allison and Eudora entering the room. Allison explained that they were all going to watch a movie together. Five and Diego were still cleaning up in the kitchen and Vanya was preparing the snacks. Allison and Eudora were on blanket duty. 

The boys were left alone again but didn’t speak throughout the few minutes they were waiting. Vanya came in before they returned. She put the snacks down and then took both of their temperatures. Luther was sitting at 98.4 and Klaus was up higher at 101.7. He could not shake this fever. 

Vanya called in to Diego and told him to bring in an ice pack and some more tylenol. Instead of waiting, Five blinked in with it and blinked back out before anyone could even thank him. 

A few minutes later, after Vanya had Klaus all set up, everyone made their way into the living room. They all cuddled up to one another on the couches. Luther was on the far end with Klaus on his side, then Diego was next to him, having Eudora on his other side. Then on the other couch was Five, Vanya, and Allison. 

The lot debated over movies for a good twenty minutes until Klaus had a particularly rough coughing fit and they all gave in to his choice: Mulan. 

The movie started and was uneventful for a while. They all sat silently as they watched it, occasional coughing and sniffling and sneezing from the two ill boys. 

About thirty minutes into the film, however, Luther blew his nose hard and came back up with a tickle in his nose. 

“Hh’HEKSHIEW! HrESHHIEW! Sorry-hehhNXGHT-ISSHYUH! Snf, oh god. IhhixgtSHH! inxgst’chieh! Hihh’NKKT! ” He kept trying to stifle his sneezes as much as he could for several reasons: he didn’t want to interrupt the movie, Klaus was laying across him and was being jolted violently with every sneeze, and Diego was giving him a glare basically threatening him after every paroxysm. 

Klaus giggled, “Allison, what the hell? Did you rumor him to sneeze this much too?”

No one answered. The only sound was the words from the movie. 

“Oh shit,” Klaus gasped, realizing he most definitely should not have said that. “Never mind! Bless you, Luther. Now let’s get back to the movie-“

“What do you mean did you rumor him to sneeze this much too?” Diego asked. His tone was dark and scary. 

Klaus sat up and tried to calm Diego down with his touch. Spoiler alert: it didn’t work. 

Diego shot up, knocking Klaus back onto Luther.

“Did you cause him to have that asthma attack earlier? Was that what you meant when you said you didn’t mean to?” Diego put his head in his hands. “Oh my fucking god of course it was. This makes so much sense. Why would you want to hurt our brother like that?”

Allison shouted, “Diego, I didn’t know-“

“Do you know how many times I’ve needed to pick him up off the streets to take him to the damn hospital because he’s having such a bad asthma attack? How could you be so stupid?”

Klaus cut in, “Hey hey Diego it’s okay she only did it because I was being really annoying!”

“You put our brother’s life in danger because he was annoying you?” Diego stormed out of the room. 

“Huh. Maybe I should stop talking…” Klaus scratched his neck awkwardly. 

Eudora said, “I can go handle Diego.” Everyone nodded approvingly and she was off. 

Klaus made his way over to the other couch and saw Allison tearing up. “Hey hey hey, no more tears today, Allison. As a family we’ve all cried way too much today, okay? We-hehhingxt! We’re okahhh-okay-hhihhiitschiew! We’re okay. I promise.” Allison reached her arms out for a hug. “Hangononesecthere’sanotherone-hh’inxtshyiu-h’Ngk’tshuh-nxt!” 

After the mini fit Klaus rubbed his eyes and sniffled hard, then sitting on Allison’s lap as he wrapped his arms around her. 

He was only able to comfort her for a few more seconds before being beckoned to join Diego and Eudora in the kitchen, calmly by Eudora of course. 

Klaus hoisted himself up, dizzying himself briefly after standing too quickly, but quickly regained his balance and glided into the kitchen. When he saw Diego he was shocked to see that he didn’t look mad…he looked…scared. 

“Hey, you alright, Diego?” Klaus asked. 

Diego stammered, “I-I just I don’t…I was so scared when Allison told me to bring your inhaler quick, I…I felt my whole body freeze. I know you’re sick and shit’s gonna happen but I keep getting so terrified th-that…that I’m going to lose you.”

Klaus felt his heart break. He knew how hard it was for Diego who had watched him make countless stupid decisions and had to deal with the repercussions. He put his arms out. “Come here. Give me a hug.” 

Diego got up from the stool he was sitting on and attacked Klaus in a tight hug. It stripped Klaus of his breath for a moment but he got it back without worrying Diego. The two men hugged tightly for a long time. Klaus knew that as long as he was in Diego’s arms that Diego would feel okay, so he waited until Diego separated from the hug because he was the one who needed it. 

When he finally let go, Klaus started to explain, “I was being insufferable, Diego, like usual. I-I don’t blame her for rumoring me.”

“Don’t you dare say you blame yourself-”

“But I do!” Klaus looked down at the ground. “I have to…I have to learn how to be myself without all of the drugs. I don’t even know who I am anymore. I wasn’t anyone for seventeen years! I know I’m annoying but I’m trying to work on it.”

Diego frowned, “You don’t annoy me. I might act like it from time to time but I appreciate every moment we spend together.”

They hugged once more, quicker this time, and went back into the living room. 

“Diego, I-I’m so sorry I know you’re probably so mad but I wasn’t thinking about it and-”

“It’s okay, Allison,” Diego said. “Don’t worry about it, I promise.”

Without another word, they all sat down and continued watching the movie. 

Solely, they all went upstairs. Luther was the first to go. He said he was going to go and sleep off the rest of the cold. Allison followed shortly after him, saying she was going to bed. Everyone knew where she was really going, and they all wondered why she kept lying. Five went up next. He claimed he couldn’t stand the inaccuracy of the movie. Then went Eudora and Diego, together. When the front door didn’t close but Diego’s did…they all smiled. Ben left as well, he told Klaus he was going to go keep an eye on Luther. 

The only two remaining were Number Four and Number Seven, each on opposite couches. They sat like that for a few minutes before Klaus couldn’t take it anymore. 

He whined, “Vanyaaaaa! Come here! You’re far away and this blanket isn’t warm enough. I need some real human body heat to keep me from getting hypothermia over here!”

Vanya chuckled and shifted herself over to the couch that Klaus was on. She sat next to him and he immediately threw himself onto her lap. 

“How are you doing, Vanya?” Klaus asked. “You don’t…you don’t feel sick, do you?”

Vanya shook her head profusely. She laughed, “No, Klaus. I feel fine. Great, actually. It’s been a really good time taking care of you and Luther. We’ve all bonded a lot more over it. Of course, Diego has been a bit stressed out but he’s just worried.”

“Good good. I just didn’t want to get you sick,” Klaus said. 

Along with that sentence, he launched into a long coughing fit that made his eyes water and his throat feel like it was closing up. 

“Inhaler?” He choked out. 

Vanya scrambled for it and found it lying on the coffee table. She placed it in Klaus’ hands and he took a puff. After that, he let out a few weaker coughs, but the fit subsided. Klaus rubbed at his achy chest and tried his best to clear his throat without coughing more. Vanya looked at his wet eyes and cracked lips. Poor thing, he was still so sick.

“Come here,” she said. When he had used his inhaler he had sat up and scrambled away from Vanya. Now, he cuddled back up to her side instead of lying back down on her lap. Vanya put her arm around him and picked up a blanket to drape over herself and Klaus. 

They talked for about an hour or so before Vanya noticed Klaus’ droopy eyes and occasional yawns. 

“You should get to bed,” Vanya suggested. 

Klaus shrugged, “It’s kind of hard to get to sleep when you’re either coughing, sniffling, sneezing, or having to blow your nose every other minute.”

Vanya stood up and stuck out her hand. “Let me take care of you. You just sit there and try to fall asleep and I’ll take care of the rest, okay?” Klaus nodded and took her hand, coughing into the other as she pulled him off of the couch. 

It was kind of funny, quite honestly, how Vanya’s 5’0” frame was supporting Klaus’ 6’0” body, her arm wrapped around his waist making sure he didn’t fall over. He was exhausted, stumbling over his feet every few seconds, holding onto the wall or the railing or whatever he could grab on to. 

When they arrived at Klaus’ room, Vanya deposited him on the bed and told him to get changed while she checked on Luther. 

She wasn’t surprised to see Luther and Allison passed out next to each other under the covers. Vanya smiled, turned the light off, and went back to Klaus’ room. She knocked and he told her he was decent so she entered. 

Klaus was sitting on his bed in boxer shorts and a white t-shirt, smothering his face into a tissue as he tried to clear it as best as he could. He must have realized that it wasn’t going to do much because he stopped abruptly and scrubbed at his itchy nostrils. 

“Don’t cold symptoms know when it’s night time so they can fuck off?” Klaus said. 

Vanya laughed. She responded, “I don’t think cold symptoms care about if you get a good night’s sleep or not.”

Klaus huffed and balled up the tissue in his hand. He used it to wipe his nose, which seemed to be running but absolutely incapable of being cleared. 

“Alright, get in bed,” Vanya ordered. “I’m gonna dim the lights a bit and then get you your night doses of medicine. I’ll be back with water and tea and then I’ll help you get to sleep, okay?”

“Okay.”

It was rare to see Klaus so small and so vulnerable. He was tucked into himself as he rubbed furiously at his nose. When Vanya returned a few minutes later he was still rubbing. 

“I have this tickle in the back of my nose that won’t go away but it won’t let me sneeze,” Klaus whined. 

Vanya asked, “Want me to try and help you get it out?” 

“How would you do that?”

Shyly, Vanya admitted, “Well…remember at dinner the other day when you couldn’t sneeze and then you had that massive sneezing fit?”

“Oh my god…that was you?” Klaus laughed. “Holy shit, for real?” Vanya nodded. “No way. Can you do it again? That felt so good. But…do you think you can control it if my asthma starts acting up?”

Vanya nodded. “I’ll keep it under control.”

“Okay. Let me get comfy first!” Klaus threw himself under his covers, took a sip of tea and a puff of his inhaler. “Okay, I’m ready!”

“Okay.” Vanya sat across from Klaus on the bed and focused her attention on his nose. This would go a lot quicker with a sound to focus on. “Can you give me a little sniffle?” Klaus tried to give a hearty sniffle, but he couldn’t get much air in with all the blockage.

Vanya focused intently on the little sound, using the waves to vibrate along Klaus’ septum just like she had earlier. This time, she tried to go in easier, with a dulled down vibration. Klaus reacted instantly, breath hitching wildly. Vanya released the pressure, hoping that would be enough.

“Hihhh… Ithinkitsworking! I -hih!… why did you stop?”

Vanya shrugged. “I don’t want to go too hard, I might hurt you.”

“Ugh, I don’t care,” Klaus whined. “I want to sneeze! Come on, Vanya, give it all you got.”

“You sure?” She shook her head, focusing in again. “Okay – but if it something feels wrong, you have to tell me to stop – can you sniff again?” 

This time, Vanya went as hard as she had before, and she didn’t stop when Klaus’ breath started hitching again. He turned away from Vanya into his hands as he waited for the sneezes to come.

“Okay I…ihhh I think it’s worki- ehhhtshiu, woo! XNGt-itshuu!” He flashed her a dopey grin over his hands. She smiled back, releasing him from her grasp. 

“Hihhhh?…ihh… hehhhh.” Klaus shot Vanya an annoyed look. “Ugh, what the hell? Why’d you stop?”

“Wasn’t that enough?”

“No,” he whined. “Do it again, Van. Please?”

“I don’t know, Klaus-”

“Pleeeease? I really want to clear all this shit out of my nose, it huuuurts.” Vanya chuckled but nonetheless went in again; the results were instantaneous. “Ihhh-extshiew! Hh’nxt-ixtshiuu! Hihihhetshyuu! nXGt-nxgtchiehh! Okay, I need-hah! Hhitschue! H’xgtsh! Okay, V-hannnxtsh! Vanya, I thihhhxtschiew! Ineedtocatchmybreath-hihhh’hiehhHtshiuu! hihHh'TDSHiew!”

The second she saw the panicked look on Klaus’ face as he struggled to catch his breath, Vanya had put a stop to the vibrations she buzzing through his sinuses, replacing them with the pressure she had used on Luther earlier. The effect was apparently a little bit slow when the person had already been assaulted with the opposite technique, but nonetheless, his sneezes slowly died down. Klaus’ breathing slowly evened out. He threw his head back against his pillows, the rise and fall of his chest becoming less pronounced with each breath he took. He was exhausted from the sneezes but ultimately pleased. Finally, he let out a deep sigh of satisfaction.

“Fuuck, thank you.” His nose was dribbling now, but he didn’t seem to notice – or he was just too tired to care. “Maybe Allison was right - wish it had helped with the congestion more, though.”

“Here,” Vanya held a tissue up to his nose, eyes focusing on his nose again as she pushed down through his nostrils to clear his nose. “Blow.”

Klaus did as he was told. He would protest but he was feeling too weak to do anything for himself, and he knew Vanya wouldn’t mind. Klaus liked having Vanya around to take care of him. She didn’t pester him too much and she was gentle. She talked to him normally, not like he was dying. She knew what she was doing. She wasn’t too fussy. She made Klaus feel okay. 

Those thoughts lulled Klaus to sleep a few moments after he finished blowing his nose. 

Those thoughts were also the first thing he remembered when he woke up and looked at the clock. It was 4:26 AM and Klaus couldn’t breathe. His throat was gravelly and his nose was so blocked up he knew that if he tried to breathe through it all that would happen was a bad coughing fit.

He looked around for Ben but he was nowhere to be seen. Klaus cursed. He was alone. Vanya must have gone back to her room to sleep after Klaus hit the hay. He wondered if he should wake her up. 

A rough cough sent Klaus fumbling for his inhaler in the dark. When he realized how dark it was he started to become paranoid. The faint whispers of the ghosts calling his name were growing louder and louder as the seconds passed. Klaus grabbed his inhaler and then bolted into the hallway. The lights were on out there. Klaus sighed in relief. 

He slid down the wall until he was sitting on the ground, taking a puff from his inhaler on the way down. It was hard to hold his breath long enough for the medicine to work because his nose was so blocked up. Klaus looked across the hall and saw the bathroom. He remembered a time before when Diego made him take a shower to clear out his congestion. The steam really helped. Although, he wasn’t in the mood for really getting in the shower. 

That’s when Klaus got the idea to sit on the bathroom floor while the steam did its work. The only problem was that Klaus still didn’t want to be alone. He would have expected Ben to be back by now but he wasn’t, and he didn’t want to sit on the ground by himself with a raging fever while the ghosts poked and prodded him until he swore they could break through the veil. 

The thought of the ghosts touching him was enough to send Klaus running to Vanya’s door. He knocked quietly and then let himself in. He flinched at the darkness but he felt around the wall until he found a light switch. He turned a small light on and crept over to Vanya’s bedside. 

“Vanya?” Klaus cringed when he heard how stuffed up he was. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Vanya? Wake up.”

“Huh….? Klaus is that you?” Vanya’s tired voice asked. 

Klaus nodded, “Yeah, it’s me. I can’t breathe because I’m super congested and I was wondering if you could come with me while I go sit on the bathroom floor while I run the shower? I just don’t really want to be alone and I don’t know where Ben is and…could you please come with me?”

“Of course. Here, let me get up and we’ll go,” Vanya said. 

The pair walked to the bathroom and Vanya turned the shower on it’s highest setting while Klaus sat himself on the ground. Vanya handed him a box of tissues that she found in the cabinet. 

Klaus took the box and held it in his lap, waiting patiently for the steam to kick in so he could use them.

“This is genius,” Vanya commended, flashing him a tired little smile. “It’s like a giant humidifier.”

“Diego did it for me a few years ago,” Klaus explained through a wheezy breath. “I didn’t want to wake him up now, because of-”

“Eudora?” Klaus nodded and they both chuckled. “You didn’t want to interrupt them, huh?”

“Stop, I could hear Diego snoring,” Klaus play-shoved Vanya’s arm; he was so weak at the moment that it barely felt like anything to her. “I just didn’t want to wake him up. I know he’s a light sleeper.”

“The lightest sleeper. I think she’s good for him.”

“The fact that he’s asleep at all right now is a testament to that.” Klaus struggled to blow his nose but nothing came up, instead leaving him panting for air even more. 

Seeing this, Vanya tried to focus her powers on his nose, but there was so little sound coming from his attempts at sniffles, and she was so tired, that it didn’t work. She still had a lot of practice to do. So she comforted him the only other way she knew how.

“Come here.” She leaned her body against the tub, scooping Klaus up in her arms. Due to the size difference, he was basically laying on the floor with his head on her chest, but it was better than nothing. He nuzzled his head into her shirt and she stroked his hair as he continued to rub at his nose with the tissues as if something would finally come up. He continued to wheeze and give tiny gasps for air for a few minutes until finally he felt some of the pressure in his head releasing.

“Think it’s working,” he mumbled, eyes closed. He was practically asleep on Vanya, only awake enough to try to blow his nose. This time, something did finally come up. It wasn’t much, but it was a start. He could breathe through his nose now, if only just a little.

And that’s when he started to sniffle and twitch his nose. And shortly afterward, his breath started hitching. He tried to pull away but Vanya pulled him back into arms, not willing to risk the chance of him hitting his head on the tile or something like that. With the state of exhaustion he was in, it seemed pretty plausible.

“Vanya, can you let me go?” Klaus asked, eyes still closed. “I have to sneeze.”

“Then sneeze. It’ll help get all that gunk out,” Vanya said gently, still petting his messy curls. Klaus continued to struggle against her hold on him, but to no avail. It was really a testament to how sick he was that even Vanya, the smallest of the siblings and the only one who had never had any sort of physical training, could easily keep him down.

“I don’t want to sn-sneeze on you,” he whined, already holding the tissues up to his face. “Please don’t…heh! Hhh'tDZshiehh! Nixt-ixgshiuhh!“ He blew his nose afterward, a deep, gurgling blow. And took a deep, albeit sniffly, breath through his nose.

Vanya brushed his hair back from where it had fallen around his face. “Did that feel good?” she asked, stifling a yawn.

“N-n -heh!- not done….ehhhXGTschu! Hehhh…hihhh'gtchiuu! Mm, y…ihh….Ihhhgrshyuu!” He buried the tired, drawn-out sneezes into the tissues, blowing his nose again the second he was done. This time, he blew it for quite a while, and he was done, nothing seemed to be coming up anymore, and he was breathing through his nose again.

Klaus tossed the tissues in the bin and grinned contentedly, leaning back on Vanya’s chest and speaking through a yawn. “Yes.”

“Yes, what?” Vanya had dozed off herself for a second, head leaning down slightly on top of Klaus’. She blinked her eyes open wide to wake herself up.

“Yes, it felt good,” Klaus clarified. He leaned his head back to see Vanya rubbing her eyes. In response, he nestled his head back into her chest. “Mm goodnight.”

“Nope, we are not falling asleep here.” Vanya slapped lightly at her face to wake herself up. With a little groan, she pushed herself up on her elbows, forcing Klaus to sit up beside her. He rolled his eyes as she turned the shower off and held her arm out to help him up.

“Hnxgtshiu! You’re no fun,” he muttered, rubbing at his itchy nose.

“Why, because I won’t eat ice cream with you at 3 am?”

Klaus heaved a deep, annoyed sigh. “Ugh, why did you mention ice cream? That would be so good on my throat right now.” He stopped walking and turned to look down at Vanya, flashing her the softest green puppy eyes.

Vanya shook her head. “No way — don’t you dare give me that look! I’m not gonna have Diego murder me tomorrow.”

“Turtle neck lady will keep him in line. Please?” Klaus begged, even as he wavered where he stood.

Vanya shook her head with a little grin, walking the rest of the way to Klaus’ room and opening his door. She stuck her arm in and pointed in. “Come on, you can barely stand.”

“I was just playing,” Klaus explained as he got into bed. “I’m not even hungry.”

“I can never tell with you, Klaus.” Vanya pulled the blankets up to her brother’s chin and bent down to gently kiss his forehead, ruffling his hair one last time for good measure. “Try to get some sleep, okay?”

Klaus heaved a dramatic sigh and closed his eyes. “I’ll try.”

He was out like a light before Vanya had even turned out the lights.


	9. chapter 9

The next time Klaus opened his eyes, there was light coming in through his window, and the littlest Hargreeves was hovering over him like some sort of demented guardian angel.

“Jesus, Five!” he pushed himself up on his elbows and crossed his arms over his chest. “I thought you were my sleep paralysis demon, just standing there looking all… dementor-y.”

“You literally see ghosts all the time, get a grip.” 

“What time is it?”

“Noon-thirty. Open up.” Five stuck the thermometer that had apparently been in his pocket in Klaus’ mouth.

“99.9,” Five read. “We’re on the decline. That still didn’t stop Five from pulling the hand sanitizer out of his pocket and dousing his hands in it. “How’re you feeling?” Klaus shrugged. 

“Just peachy, lil bro.” He ruffled Five’s hair and grinned at him; Five raised both brows at him and said nothing. “Ugh, I dunno, Five, I just fucking woke up. Not as shitty, I guess? Still kinda shivery but mostly I-hih’nxtshu! my throat is still sore and I’m a little…hih’eshieww-n’kt! a little sneezy.”

Five had backed away slightly. “Gesundheit. Are you hungry?” When Klaus nodded, he copied the gesture, looking at him like a doctor who had just ticked something off a list. “Good. I think lunch is almost ready.”

Five poofed away, and Klaus trudged down the staircase. He stopped at the bottom when he heard Diego’s voice.

“Fine. If you insist on helping, can you pass me the… are you gonna-”

“Heh-NGXTchew!”

“Put that down. Now!”

“Hh’GXTchu! Sorry.”

Klaus walked quietly to the kitchen and stood in the doorway, watching Diego and Luther fight over a big salad bowl. Diego won, or maybe Luther let him win. He took it to the sink to wash it.

“Diego, come on, I covered my mouth-”

“I don’t care. I want you out of this kitchen. You’ll just get everyone else sick.”

“I’m not sick even anymore!”

“You just sneezed. Twice.”

“I always sneeze twice, dumbass.”

“Oh, my bad.” Diego sneered. “Do you always do everything in your power to get your family sick, too?”

Klaus could swear he saw Diego tense up as if he was expecting to be hit but couldn’t show his fear. 

Luther clenched his jaw. “You’ve been nothing but an absolute shitheel to me this whole time.”

“Oh, you’ll get over it, you’re a big boy.”

“I want you to say you’re sorry.” Luther’s voice was quiet, yet threatening. Diego rolled his eyes.

“Or what, you’ll sneeze on me?” Luther glared daggers down at him. In response, Diego put on a play-sad face, pouting like a child; Klaus bit down on his lip to keep from laughing. “I’m so sowwy, Lulu. I was a big meanie to you.”

Luther finally caved, punching the countertop he was leaning on. The whole thing shook; his strength was definitely coming back. Klaus flinched and nearly gave himself away. Diego did, too, but he played it off pretty well.

“That’s not what I meant, asshole.”

“Oh, I’m the asshole?” Diego shook his head with a little sneer. “I’m not the one who couldn’t keep my monkey flu to myself.”

Klaus could tell that was the final straw for Luther, by the way he clenched his fists at his sides. With a shitty little grin, he crept over to lean on another wall, watching his brothers intently.

Luther raised his fist in the air as if in warning, and Diego’s hand as finding its way towards the dishrack, towards the compartment for knives. 

Then there was a flash of blue in between them. The knife in Diego’s hand was thrown into the sink, and Luther’s fist had a scrawny one on top of it.

“Let go, Five,” Luther threatened.

“No. You two need to stop. Put your hand down.” Luther grunted but obliged. “You two are incorrigible – especially you,” he pointed his finger at Diego. “You know Luther’s probably still worn out from being sick, and you still knowingly would fight him?” Diego held a threatening finger against Five’s chest.

“I don’t wanna hear anything from you, not after what you did to me yesterday.”

“Hihh’Ixghtshiew!” Klaus finally let out the sneeze he’d been holding back that whole time. When he looked up from his elbows, three pairs of eyes were on him. “Hi, guys.” He grinned. “Carry on, you two! Five, why don’t you make some popcorn?”

Diego grabbed a tissue box off the counter and chucked it at Klaus. He ordered, “Blow your damn nose. Luther, just go upstairs until you’re completely better, okay? Please?”

Klaus blew his nose heavily. He sighed in satisfaction as he was actually able to clear a little of his congestion. Unfortunately, this was the part of the cold where Klaus’ nose was beginning to become unblocked but this meant it wouldn’t stop leaking. He sat at the counter while Diego worked on lunch, blowing his nose what felt like every other minute, and keeping a tissue pressed underneath his nose in between. 

“You don’t sound too good,” Diego noted. Klaus shrugged. “You need more medicine?”

Klaus shook his head. “Nah, I should be able to shake this thing on my own now. Hh-ingxht! Di-hieehhh-Diego hhandmeanothertissuehihh!” Diego was busy tossing the salad and couldn’t get to the tissues in time. “Heehhetshieh-h’esshuh!!” 

“You good, bud?” Diego asked as Klaus kept his hands pressed up to his face. “Need a tissue?” 

Klaus nodded. Diego grabbed a couple from the box and handed them to Klaus, who kept one hand firmly over his nose and mouth and slowly used the tissues to mop up the mess. 

“These are messy now,” Klaus laughed. He sniffled. “I’m gonna need more tissues. Yeah, I know. No, really I think it’s okay. I haven’t been sneezing that much! Yes compared to yesterday! You weren’t even here half the damn time! Where even were you?”

It still threw Diego off whenever Klaus started talking to Ben in the middle of a conversation. Klaus really did look crazy, especially right now. His bedhead was a mess and his eyes and nose were running heavily. The bags under his eyes were as prominent as ever, indicative of another night of restless sleep. The talking to someone who didn’t seem to be there was just the cherry on top. 

“Diego? Diego!” 

“Huh? What, Klaus?” 

Klaus sniffled, “I asked if you could get me a glass of water.” Diego obliged and Klaus gulped down the water like he hadn’t had it in days.

Then he held out the glass for more. Diego refilled it for him twice.

“You sure you don’t need some of that throat spray?” Diego asked, shutting the water off. He’d left it on the whole time after he first rinsed the salad.

Klaus finally set his glass down and shook his head. “No, I’m good. Besides, that shit doesn’t work anyway.” He rested his head in his arms on the counter, shooting Diego a hopeful look. “Can I help?” He wasn’t feeling as exhausted at the moment. In fact, he was pretty antsy. And bored.

Diego put the newly-rinsed salad down on the counter in front of Klaus. “Did you not hear what I just told Luther?” 

Klaus shrugged. “I thought you were just mad at him.”

With an eye-roll, Diego set the salad bowl in front of Klaus. “You can bring this to the table. And then I want you to sit and wait, okay? Besides, I’m pretty much done.”

Klaus did as he was told, and Diego set lunch at the places designated on the table: four caprese sandwiches and bowls for salad were located on the placemats where the other siblings would sit.

Klaus watched as Five, Vanya, and Luther took their seats and started eating their sandwiches. Allison was out, and Eudora had left for work at 7am.

Klaus looked down at his empty placemat and furrowed his brows. “What about me?” he whined. “I’m starving.”

Then the microwave beeped. Klaus hadn’t even known it was on. He frowned when Diego pulled out a steaming hot bowl of reheated soup and place it down in front of him. 

“What the hell, Diego? I want a sandwich!” Klaus immediately grabbed at his throat; yelling was not the best thing for him right now.

“No dairy until your throat feels better. Eat your soup,” Five commanded through his final mouthful of sandwich. He’d wolfed down his food in the time it took Vanya to eat a quarter of hers and Luther to pick his food into tiny little pieces, which he was just starting to eat.

“But I’m hungry!” Klaus whined. “I haven’t eaten solid food ihh.. In-xgtsh-ishyuueh! Huhhr’tDEzhiuuh – days!”

“Bless you.” Vanya put a gentle hand on Klaus’ shoulder. “Five is right. And we’ve got to finish this soup off somehow.”

Klaus huffed. “That’s all I’m good for?” he rasped. Nonetheless, he ate his soup. It helped with his throat a bit, and he realized pretty soon that he couldn’t taste anything anyway, which shut him up about it.

The rest of lunch went off without a hitch. The soup helped relieve even more of the congestion, causing his nose to run. Or, maybe Vanya was helping him again, she was smiling at him a lot anyway. Klaus didn’t care, though. He was pleased to blow through three napkins regardless.

Luther was doing much better, he was able to talk without any pain now. Which meant everyone had to sit through his tangents about his “very important” research on moon rocks. Diego looked about ready to explode. And Klaus was ready to fall asleep into his soup bowl.

Or, maybe Klaus was just a lot sleepier than he’d been twenty minutes ago. Nonetheless, he allowed Diego to help him to the couch.

“Thanks, D,” he mumbled into the pillows. “I’m just gonna take a little cat nap, okay?”


	10. chapter 10

When Klaus woke up, three hours had gone by, and his siblings were nowhere in sight. Not even Ben had stuck around.

He stumbled through the entire first story of the house, looking for a companion. And maybe someone to make him some food. He was starving.

“Diego?” he called. “Vanya? Luther? Anyone?” No response. “Well, if no one’s here, I’m gonna eat all the ice cream, and no one can stop me!”

When he went to open the fridge, a little note on the door stopped him.

“Going to rehearsal. Diego = shift, Luther+5=out. Allison back around 5.”

<3 V”

Klaus looked at the wall clock; it was 5:03 pm. 

As if on cue, he heard the front door open. And then Allison was standing in the doorway to the kitchen, arms filled with grocery bags.

“Klaus!” she greeted with a warm smile as she set them down on the counter. She rushed over to feel his forehead. Then she hugged him. “How are you feeling?”

Klaus returned the smile and the hug. “A lot better. Still kinda sneezy, but even that’s dying down now. At least, compared to yesterday…”

Allison pulled away at that and immediately started sorting through the grocery bags. Klaus bit down on his lip.

“Allie, it’s okay, I didn’t mean to– here, let me help you.” 

They chatted idly as they put the groceries away, Klaus’ nose becoming more and itchier by the second until he had to turn away from the cabbage in his hands.

“Hhhih’etshyuU! Ikt’shiuu-nxgtchiuu!” he sneezed freely to the side.

“Yup, that’s getting washed again,” Allison joked, grabbing the cabbage out of his hands and rinsing it in the sink.

“Sorry.” Klaus smiled sheepishly, rubbing his nose on his sleeve. Another one of Diego’s hoodies, soiled. “Ugh, I hate wearing these stupid clothes.”

He pushed the sleeves up to his elbows, pulling his sweatpants up from where they threatened to slide further down his hips. 

“Diego wouldn’t like to hear you call his clothing stupid. Besides, you need to keep warm. And comfortable, you don’t exactly own loungewear.”

“He doesn’t care about clothes,” Klaus whined, pulling his arms around his waist. “I don’t know… I just feel like, not me when I’m not in my clothes. Y’know?”

Allison came up behind him and rubbed his arm, kissing him on the cheek.

“I know.” She ruffled his hair before returning her focus to rinsing off vegetables. “Remember when dad made me straighten my hair that one time?”

Klaus cringed. “Oh god, you looked so bad. You looked like-”

“Like not me. I rumored him not to make me do it ever again.”

“You did?” Klaus giggled. “That’s so -hih’extshiew!- that’s so badass.”

He sorted through some more groceries, stopping when he came across a box of PopTarts, obviously bought with Five in mind. His stomach growled. 

“Hey, can I have one of these? Diego made me eat soup for lunch again and I’m fucking starving.”

Allison flashed him a sad little smile and shook her head. “I’m sorry, Klaus. You need to get your eating schedule back on track. And besides, those are for Five.”

Klaus groaned. “What’s stopping me from grabbing one right now?”

He opened the box and tried to take one out. Allison grabbed the box from his hand.

“Come on!” He tried to grab the box from her, but she wouldn’t let up. And she was pretty strong, even without Klaus’ illness working to her advantage.

“Klaus, I can’t let you eat that right now. Just be patient and wait until dinner, okay?”

He pulled the box back from her. “I’m a grown-ass man, I can eat what I want!”

Their game of tug-of-war was cut short by a flash of blue light, which sent Allison shrieking and “dropping” the box, accidentally conceding it to Klaus, who stumbled backward with it, yet clutched it for dear life.

“Thanks, Allie!” He went to open one.

“Hey!” Five grabbed the box from him with his left hand. “Don’t touch my food.”

“Is your name on them?” Klaus hissed, though the effect was more or less ruined by the hoarseness of his voice. His eyes zeroed in on the drink tray full of four Griddy’s to-go cups in Five’s right hand. “Hey, did you get me a coffee?” he asked, suddenly nice again. He could really go for some caffeine right now.

“No. I got everyone else coffees.” Five set the PopTarts and the drink tray on the counter and handed one of the to-go cups to Klaus. “You get tea.”

Klaus huffed but nonetheless took the cup. He wasn’t gonna whine about it, it was nice enough for Five to get him anything.

“Hixt’shuu!” Klaus rubbed his nose, before sipping at his tea. “Who goes to Griddy’s and doesn’t get donuts? That should be illegal.”

Five set his coffee down and grinned. “Who said we didn’t get-”

“Surprise!”

Klaus nearly spilled his tea. He turned around to see Luther standing behind him, holding up a Griddy’s box like it was a birthday cake. He set it down on the counter and opened it, proudly displaying a half-dozen donuts. Each of the (living) siblings’ favorites.

Klaus’ stomach grumbled.

“Are you guys trying to torture me?” he whined. He looked at Allison with pleading eyes. “Can I have one, please? Please?”

Allison smiled at him. “Why do you think I told you not to eat the PopTart, dummy?”

Klaus grinned; yet another Oscar-worthy performance from Allison.

Luther passed Klaus his signature donut: frosted and absolutely drenched in rainbow sprinkles. “We knew you’d be starving. After what Diego made you eat for lunch.”

Klaus looked down at his donut like it was the long lost love of his life. "Thanks, guys.” He raised it to his lips but hesitated once it was there. “Won’t he be mad?”

Allison licked her lips and smiled. “What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.” She booped Klaus on the nose.

In response, Klaus wriggled his nose and took a bite out of his donut. His eyelashes fluttered and Allison watched as Klaus hurried to chew and swallow his food. He was pressing his wrist up to his nostrils hard. 

He finally finished swallowing. “hhh’hHHHRENXGHT! Oh, man-aihhhitschiew! kng’t!” He shook his head as if that proved an effective way to dislodge the tickle. 

“Bless you.” 

Klaus grabbed a napkin out of the box and used it to blow his nose. He then disposed of it, washed his hands, and continued eating his donut. At least his taste-buds were working again.

He had just barely finished it when they heard Diego come in through the front doors. He was followed by a much quieter Vanya. 

“You got donuts? You didn’t let Klaus have one did you?” Diego asked. 

Allison shook her head, “We know what he needs right now, Diego. Not this junk.”

Klaus had to hold back a snicker. Diego gave him an odd look that Klaus played off as him having to sneeze. 

“Okay. Vanya and I are gonna head out to do some errands in a few minutes. Do you losers think you can hold down the fort until I’m back?”

Five rolled his eyes. “The fort has been fine all day and the only person home was Klaus.”

“I want to come,” Klaus said. No one spoke. “On the errands. Really. I’m feeling better.” Diego didn’t look convinced. “Also…I think I’m close to needing a refill for my inhaler so…”

At the mention of his inhaler, Diego grabbed for the keys. Klaus grinned and told Diego to wait a moment while he fetched his inhaler and put on some new old clothes of Diego’s.

He was wearing thin sweatpants and a crew neck sweatshirt. The sweatpants were grey and the sweatshirt was teal. Klaus liked it. He had felt so colorless lately. 

He whipped his inhaler out of his pocket and tossed it to Diego who was going to be responsible for remembering to get it filled. 

Diego checked the side of it. “This is nowhere near needing a refill.” Nonetheless, he pocketed it. “Better to be safe than sorry, though.”


	11. chapter 11

They drove into town chatting idly. Klaus wanted to play the radio but Vanya hated it, so their accompaniment for the ride was the sound of Klaus blowing his nose and sneezing occasionally in the backseat. He twiddled his thumbs anxiously as they went to the dry cleaner’s, the hardware store, and the post office before they finally made it to the stop Klaus had been waiting for: Target.

He left Diego with his inhaler at the CVS Pharmacy counter (thank god there was a line), and immediately dragged Vanya over to the women’s loungewear section.

Vanya giggled as she waited for Klaus outside the gender-neutral dressing room. “So this is why you wouldn’t go to the other CVS. Diego’s gonna be pissed.”

“Shh, don’t tell him!” Klaus flung the dressing room door open and stepped out dramatically. He stepped out in a pair of light grey joggers and a salmon-colored sweatshirt, strutting down the waiting area.

“So cute!” Vanya cheered. “So much better than the stupid sweats you’ve been wearing these past few days.”

“So much more meeeeee!” The outfit was roomy and comfortable, yet still cute and fashionable. Klaus twirled around, only stopping when he was hit by a wave of dizziness. He grabbed onto the door to his fitting room. “Whoa.”

Vanya reached out her arm to steady him. “Hey, be careful. Don’t want you passing out again.”

Klaus shook his head. “Wasn’t… hih! planning on it.” without thinking, he buried his nose into his elbow. “Hh’nxgtsh! h’nxgtshehhh! h’tDISHieww!” He looked down at the shirt, which was now connected to his nose by a string of snot, and grinned. “Guess I have to buy it now. Can I snag a tissue?”

Vanya handed him one. She always kept a travel pack handy. “Who’s gonna pay for it?”

Klaus blew his nose and shot her the most convincing green puppy eyes. Vanya rolled her eyes and ruffled his hair.

“Okay, but only cause you’re sick.”

Klaus attacked her in a hug, making sure to avoid her face in case of contagion. “Thanks, Van! Love youuuu.”

“Hey, where were you guys? I’ve been looking all over for you!” They both turned their heads to see Diego standing there, prescription bag in hand. “They said your inhaler didn’t need to be refilled for a month.”

Klaus shrugged. “You said it yourself, better to be safe than sorry.”

Diego tossed the bag to him. Klaus caught it; his reflexes were starting to come back to him. “Nice clothes. Is that why you dragged me here?”

Klaus smiled sheepishly and got up to spin around again. “Bingo!”

Diego was so happy to see Klaus’ normal energy coming back, that he just rolled his eyes and smiled. “You’re ridiculous. Come on, go get changed and we’ll check out.”

Klaus did as he was told, stripping off the new clothes and pulling Diego’s old sweats back on. His mood shifted dramatically when he was back in Diego’s clothes. It was as if the exhaustion hit him all at once, coupled with the uncomfortable feeling of wearing someone else’s clothing.

He listened to Vanya and Diego speaking in hushed voices outside the changing room as he tried to fold the three new outfits he had picked out. They both wanted to pay for his clothes. Klaus smirked to himself as he gave up on the clothes and threw them unfolded into his basket. A part of him appreciated having them care so much about him, but another part of him reveled in having both wrapped around his little finger.

He got his penance for his mischievous thoughts in the checkout line.

“Ihhh….hi-ixgtshiew! Sorry,” he smiled sheepishly at the cashier before ducking his head back into Diego’s hoodie sleeve. Diego and Vanya were splitting the bill evenly. “Hhhr’itxtshyuu-nxgt!” He blinked his eyes wearily and averted the annoyed stares of the people behind them in line. Why couldn’t they have just done self-checkout?

When they pulled out of the parking lot, Klaus was yawning. He immediately changed into one of his new sleep shirts in the car and put Diego’s hoodie behind him like a pillow. He shut his eyes and nuzzled his face into it.

“Look at him,” Vanya cooed, whipping out her phone to take a picture from the passenger seat.

By the time they reached home, Klaus was out cold. Diego carried him inside and deposited him (lovingly) on the couch.

When Klaus woke up, and Legally Blonde was playing on the TV. Diego was petting his hair. Vanya was on his side. He blinked his eyes open just long enough to see Luther, Allison and Five on the other couch. Ben sat in front of the TV, loudly laughing at every joke. He’d never seen this one before.

“Ugh, shut up, Ben!” he mumbled as he buried his face back into his arms. Everyone shushed him, and a smile slowly spread on Klaus’ face. In his new clothes, surrounded by his siblings, he felt truly comfortable for the first time in days. Actually, for the first time in years, excluding his time with Dave.

He was so comfortable that he drifted off into sleep again. It was a peaceful sleep, one of the first few Klaus had had in a long time. His siblings cuddled around him, finishing the movie in peace. They were all together and happy as a family. Diego wasn’t screaming at Luther, Klaus wasn’t awake sneezing his ass off, Ben was as close to his family as he had felt in a long time. It was as close to perfection as this fucked up conglomerated family could get. 

Exactly ten days later, Luther was down with a fever again. He had been coughing and sneezing and blowing his nose frequently throughout the whole day. Everyone wrote it off until the congestion and the exhaustion really kicked in and Luther felt bad enough to tell everyone what was going on. He was confused, as he had just kicked the last sickness he had been dealing with a week ago.

“How the hell did you manage to get sick again? Are we sure this is something different? Did it just come back badly?” Diego asked. Frantically, he pushed Klaus out of the room.

Five answered for Luther, “He’s got a shitty immune system after being isolated on the moon for four years. It’s hard to catch so much as a sniffle up there without coming down with something from stress. He’s not used to our germs again. Chances are he’ll be like this for the next year or so until his body really gets used to living here.”

Everyone groaned. 

“That’s it. I’m buying Klaus a damn hazmat suit,” Diego muttered. 

Klaus managed to escape from catching this cold, but there were many more for him and Luther to come.


End file.
